White Mother Sues Sperm Bank After Birth of Mixed-Race Daughter

  Friday, October 3,2014

Jennifer Cramblett is suing the Midwest Sperm Bank for wrongful birth and emotional suffering.

AChicago-area sperm bank is being sued by an Ohio woman for mistakenly giving her vials from an African-American donor, reports the Chicago Tribune.

Jennifer Cramblett, who is white, filed a lawsuit stating that Midwest Sperm Bank gave her the vials of a black man instead of the white man she and her partner had chosen. Documents show that Cramblett and her partner, Amanda Zinkon, chose donor No. 380, who is white. However, they were sent the sperm from donor No. 330, who is black.

When the couple ordered more vials so that they could have more children using sperm from the original white donor they claim they requested, it was then that they realized the initial donor didn’t match the one they requested. But by then, Cramblett was pregnant. Continue after the cut...

Cramblett is suing the sperm bank for “wrongful birth and breach of warranty, citing the emotional and economic losses she has suffered,” the Tribune reports.

The lawsuit states, “On August 21, 2012, Jennifer gave birth to Payton, a beautiful, obviously mixed-race baby girl. Jennifer bonded with Payton easily and she and Amanda love her very much. Even so, Jennifer lives each day with fears, anxieties and uncertainty about her future and Payton’s future.”

Cramblett and her partner have stated that there are challenges to raising Payton in the small, virtually all-white town of Uniontown, Ohio. Cramblett stated in the lawsuit that she was raised in a community that held racially intolerant beliefs about people of color. Cramblett did not meet any black Americans until she attended college. The lawsuit states that it is because of her upbringing that “Jennifer acknowledges her limited cultural competency relative to African-Americans and steep learning curve, particularly in small, homogenous Uniontown, which she regards as too racially intolerant.”

One of the couple’s concerns involves getting Payton’s hair done. It requires Cramblett to travel to a black community where she is “not overtly welcome.”

Further, Cramblett is concerned about her family, which the lawsuit states is an “all white and unconsciously insensitive family.” The lawsuit goes on to say, “Though compelled to repress her individuality amongst family members, Payton’s differences are irrepressible, and Jennifer does not want Payton to feel stigmatized or unrecognized due simply to the circumstances of her birth. Jennifer’s stress and anxiety intensify when she envisions Payton entering an all-white school.”

Cramblett’s therapist has suggested that she and her partner move to a more racially diverse area for the now 2-year-old child’s psychological health.