Boston fertility doctor accused of using his own sperm to impregnate patient

A Maine woman has sued a prominent retired Boston fertility doctor, alleging he improperly impregnated her with his own sperm during an artificial insemination procedure performed more than four decades ago.

The suit, filed Wednesday in U.S. District court in Boston, names Dr. Merle Berger, a founder of Boston IVF, alleging that he inserted his sperm into a patient who was told that she would receive sperm from an anonymous donor. It claims that a home-based DNA test indicated that Berger is the likely biological father of a woman whose mother was a patient of Berger's.

Sarah Depoian of Maine said that in 1979 she and her husband went to Berger for insemination and were told that she would receive sperm from “a medical resident who resembled her husband, who did not know her, and whom she did not know.” But the lawsuit alleges that the sperm used in the procedure was actually Berger's.

"Dr. Berger's heinous and intentional misconduct is unethical, unacceptable and unlawful," said Dopoian's attorney Adam Wolf, with the law firm Peiffer Wolf Carr Kane Conway & Wise.

The suit alleges that Berger didn't deny using his own sperm when Depoian questioned him after her daughter, 42-year-old Carolyn Bester, took a home DNA test last year. The test led Bester to suspect that Berger was her biological father.

"We want accountability in this case," Bester said at a news conference Wednesday, "I have a son and this obviously affects him as well."

In a statement, Berger's attorney Ian Pinta, of Todd and Weld, said the allegations concern events from a "dramatically different time" in "the early days of artificial insemination."

"The allegations, which have changed repeatedly in the six months since the plaintiff's attorney first contacted Dr. Berger, have no legal or factual merit, and will be disproven in court," Pinta's statement said.

Berger is the co-founder of Boston IVF — one of the nation's largest infertility clinics — and a former professor of obstetrics, gynecology and reproductive biology at Harvard Medical School.

The suit accuses Berger of fraudulent concealment, misrepresentation, and violations of the Massachusetts Consumer Protection Law. It seeks monetary damages.