A woman in Ohio is suing an Illinois sperm bank, alleging it inseminated her with sperm from a black donor and not from the white donor she and her partner had selected.
In a lawsuit filed in Cook Country Circuit Court, Jennifer Cramblett says she and her partner Amanda Zinkon, who are both white, had selected a donor listed as Number 380 but that the Midwest Sperm Bank near Chicago provided sperm from a donor listed as Number 330.
The sperm bank's use of hand-written registers, which made the 380 look like 330, was the cause of the mistake and led to Cramblett receiving sperm from a black donor rather than the white donor she and Zinkon assumed they had chosen, the suit charges.
In August 2012, Cramblett delivered Payton, "a beautiful, obviously mixed race, baby girl," the lawsuit said.
"All of the thought, care and planning that she and Amanda had undertaken to control their baby's parentage had been rendered meaningless," the lawsuit charges.
Cramblett and Zinkon say they love their daughter, now 2, but expressed concern about bringing her up in the all-white community of Uniontown, Ohio, and about a lack of acceptance by relatives already "unconsciously insensitive" to the couple's same-sex relationship.
Therapists have suggested Cramblett, Zinkon and Payton consider moving to a community that is more diverse racially, according to the suit.
Cramblett said she brought the suit so that such a mistake would not be visited on another family.
"I'm not going to let them get away with this," she said.
The sperm bank has apologized and sent Cramblett and Zinkon a refund check for six vials of incorrect sperm provided.
Cramblett expressed anger at what she called the sperm bank's cavalier attitude and "lack of concern for me and my family."
"They took a personal choice, a personal decision and took it on themselves to make that choice for us out of pure negligence," she said.
"I'm not going to sit back and let this ever happen to anyone ever again," Cramblett told NBC News. "You can't just do that and say, 'Well, you got a baby. ... so you should be happy. Lesbian couples can't have a baby anyways.'"
In the lawsuit Cramblett is seeking $50,000 in damages,
Some of the compensation would pay for ongoing counseling for Cramblett and Zincon, says Cramblett's attorney Tim Misny.
