Kristina Koedderich, a white woman, and her white husband, Drew Wasilewski gave birth to a baby girl – however, due to a clerical issue at the fertility clinic, the baby was born of Asian descent.
In New Jersey, a fertility clinic is being ordered to turn over a list of sperm donors after the two gave birth to an Asian baby. A recently filed lawsuit alleges Koedderich was given sperm from a man who was not her husband, and that the man passed on a genetic disorder. The couple is seeking monetary damages and information on their daughter’s biological father, according to CBS News.
Koedderich and Wasilewski said that when they had trouble getting pregnant, they turned to the Institute for Reproductive Medicine and Science at St. Barnabas in New Jersey. Koedderich then tried in vitro fertilization, and in 2013 gave birth to a baby girl.
But around the time when their daughter turned two, the couple realized that something wasn’t right. “She doesn’t look like Drew,” Koedderich remembers thinking.
The pair, who are now divorced, revealed a DNA test confirmed their daughter is only related to Koedderich.
“It was hard,” Wasilewski said when he found out he wasn’t the biological father. “You want to have a child and you can’t have one and then you’re finally able to … and it was upsetting.” Adding, “Very confusing.”
Wasilewski is also concerned that he has other biological children that he doesn’t know about.
“The problem we have here, what happened to Drew’s sperm?” said David Mazie, the family’s attorney. “It was supposed to be inseminated that day. So if it didn’t go into Kristina, is it someone else who he fathered?”
“If I have other children, I want them to know who I am,” Wasilewski said.
Mazie says even if they win the lawsuit, it won’t fix the damage that’s been done.
“Unfortunately, there’s no perfect outcome, because you can never go back in time,” he said. “The best outcome is that this clinic and other clinics follow suit and change their procedures and make sure this never, ever happens to another couple.”
In a statement, the clinic told CBS News that “the integrity of our treatment processes are paramount and we are taking this matter very seriously.”
Koedderich and Wasilewski said their nightmare fertility situation was a factor that led to their divorce. Both wonder how Wasilewski will explain this to the daughter he’s raising as his own in the future.
“How’s she gonna treat him?” Koedderich asked.
“I’m worried about a lot of things,” Wasilewski said tearfully. “Every day I say, ‘Just do the best I can,’ and hopefully it turns out okay.”
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