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SALT LAKE CITY — A woman who says former fertility clinic employee Thomas Lippert changed her family forever wants changes made for the future.
Pam Branum of Selma, Texas, says she will not sue the University of Utah unless a class-action lawsuit is formed.
"The clinic is no longer in business, Mr. Lippert is dead, and the man who owned the clinic is dead," she said.
So far, no other people possibly treated in the same way by Lippert, who is accused of switching sperm samples with his own, have been revealed. Branum hopes they work past any fears or embarrassment to come forward and undergo DNA and genetic testing.
The University hired Lippert for a time in the early 1990s. From 1988 to 1994, he worked as a clinician at the now-defunct Reproductive Medical Technologies, Inc. in Midvale, which contracted with the U.
Branum learned through DNA testing that he was the father of her now 21-year-old daughter, Annie, and not her husband, John. At the time, the family lived in Park City and stayed for two years.
Now, Branum wants the fertility clinic industry and governments across the country to make sweeping changes, starting with limits on the number of times clinics can use specimens from donors.
"They use a sperm donor over and over again. In a community like Salt Lake City or a small country like England, there could be major problems," she said.
Related:
Wife of fertility worker not surprised by claims he tampered with samples
Couples who used a specific fertility clinic in Utah in the early '90s are questioning the paternity of their children after one family discovered their daughter's DNA links to a clinic employee. Now that employee's widow says she's not surprised by the allegations.Those problems could include half-siblings meeting, falling in love and having children with birth defects, all the while not knowing they are related.
Another change would include a mandatory DNA test when an in-vitro child is born.
"No one, no man would intentionally do this, knowing that in nine months a DNA test would be taken and they would be caught," Branum said.
Branum would also like to see false inseminations prosecuted as sex crimes unless they're proved to be accidents. Right now, they're only treated as fraud.
Branum says she and her daughter, who was conceived with Lippert's specimen, have been strong since learning the truth. Annie is currently an astrophysics student, and Pam says Annie has received tremendous love and support from her classmates, friends and family.
