Minnesota Waterfowl Hunting

CLEVELAND — An Ohio woman has sued a Chicago-area sperm bank after she became pregnant with sperm donated by a black man instead of a white man as she and her partner had intended.

The woman is seeking damages and wants to ensure the sperm bank doesn't make a similar mistake again.

Within days of their wedding in New York, Jennifer Cramblett and Amanda Zinkon had become pregnant with the donor sperm. In April 2012, five months into her pregnancy, Cramblett, 36, called Midwest Sperm Bank LLC outside Chicago to reserve sperm from the same donor in the hope that Zinkon, 29, would someday also have a child.

That's when Cramblett learned from a sperm bank employee that she had been inseminated with sperm from the wrong donor, according to a lawsuit filed Monday against Midwest Sperm Bank in Cook County, Illinois.

Cramblett said they had chosen sperm from a man known as No. 380, a white donor. The sperm used for insemination came from No. 330, a black donor, she said.

"How could they make a mistake that was so personal?" Cramblett said during a telephone interview on Wednesday.

According to the lawsuit, her excitement about the pending birth was replaced with "anger, disappointment and fear."


"They took a personal choice, a personal decision and took it on themselves to make that choice for us out of pure negligence," Cramblett said.

A woman who answered the telephone at Midwest Sperm Bank on Thursday would not comment and said an attorney would be providing a statement. She would not give her name or identify the attorney.

Cramblett said she and Zinkon love their 2-year-old daughter, Payton, very much and wouldn't change anything about her. But they are concerned about raising her in the predominantly white community where they live.

The lawsuit said they had moved from Akron to Uniontown for better schools and to be closer to Cramblett's family. She said that as a lesbian she has felt the sting of prejudice but doesn't know what it's like to be mistreated because of skin color.

Therapists have recommended that Cramblett, Zinkon and Payton move to a more racially diverse community with good schools, the lawsuit said.

Cramblett said she decided to sue to prevent the sperm bank from making the same mistake again. The lawsuit says the sperm bank has no electronic record-keeping and no quality controls that would have prevented it from sending the wrong sperm to fertility clinics.

The lawsuit seeks a minimum of $50,000 in damages. Cramblett's attorney, Tim Misny, said some of the compensation would pay for ongoing counseling.

Maybe they should have placed an ad on Craigslist and got a living breathing donor. Could have just done the deed or used a turkey baster.

Weird... a white chick having a black guys baby who he will never see or take care of.

^^^that's so racist.

My title had nothing to do with race and would have been the same whether it was a black women mistakenly inseminated with white seed, an Asian inseminated with native American seed, or even a white inseminated with white seed from the incorrect white donor.

Let's leave race out of this discussion please!

Fish Felon wrote:^^^that's so racist.

My title had nothing to do with race and would have been the same whether it was a black women mistakenly inseminated with white seed, an Asian inseminated with native American seed, or even a white inseminated with white seed from the incorrect white donor.

Let's leave race out of this discussion please!

And abortion had nothing to do with the story either....so why the title?

Yes. Amazing that s mostly white. Neighborhood would be intolerant of the kid's race. The two moms should move to someplace more inclusive and accepting of non-traditional values.

Fish Felon wrote:^^^that's so racist.

My title had nothing to do with race and would have been the same whether it was a black women mistakenly inseminated with white seed, an Asian inseminated with native American seed, or even a white inseminated with white seed from the incorrect white donor.

Let's leave race out of this discussion please!

The article put race on the table.

At least the tyke will be able to say "moms" and not be grammatically incorrect.

It think "Adoption Time" would have been an acceptable solution. The clinic kind of stepped out on them and gave them someone else's kid. But their not the first: babies switched at hospitals, mom's passing off kids that aren't their husbands.... this chit's been around forever.

Next will be the divorce, custody battle, and a single parent household.

We'll kill ourselves long before climate change gets us.

Fish Felon wrote:^^^that's so racist.

My title had nothing to do with race and would have been the same whether it was a black women mistakenly inseminated with white seed, an Asian inseminated with native American seed, or even a white inseminated with white seed from the incorrect white donor.

Let's leave race out of this discussion please!

Killer Clyde? Or Under radar? Is that you?