106 Iowa L. Rev. 905 (2021)

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Abstract

For almost a century, fertility physicians have inseminated their patients with their own sperm, without the patients’ consent. The physicians are largely unscathed due to the near absence of state and federal regulation of the industry (it is self-regulating), stigma surrounding the procedure, and a lack of civil and criminal recourse for their actions. Due to the rise of easily accessible online DNA testing kits and websites, the conceived children have uncovered a horrifying truth: their mother’s fertility doctor is their biological father. As of September 2020, six states have criminalized this behavior in very different ways: misuse of gametes, sexual assault, deception, and reproductive battery. This Note proposes a federal act, the Fertility Patient Protection Act (the “Act”), encompassing elements of three different state statutes. The baseline penalty of the Act will be reproductive battery. There will also be a criminal deception provision that will be a fact-specific add-on penalty. The Act will additionally include a civil cause of action.