Fertility doctor and Mormon church leader sued for using own sperm to impregnate IVF patient

A fertility doctor has been accused by twins of using his own sperm to get their mother pregnant using IVF, and they have sued his family’s estate for fertility fraud.

Allison Vece and Kevin Phelps say that Dr Joseph Plautz impregnated their mother, Gayle Fedele, with his sperm around June 1984 in Clark County, Nevada.

According to the lawsuit filed in the county district court last month, Ms Fedele first started seeing Dr Plautz that year when she decided she wanted to get pregnant but could not do so naturally due to her husband’s vasectomy.

The doctor told the woman about artificial insemination and said he’d be able to obtain a sperm sample from the Rocky Mountain Sperm Bank in Jackson Hole, Wyoming.

The woman then told the doctor about the physical characteristics she’d like in a donor and the doctor said he’d take care of getting the sample.

At no point did the doctor ask the woman to sign any forms about the authorization of the sperm sample, the lawsuit states.

The doctor then gave the woman fertility drugs. Later that month, she told Dr Plautz she was ovulating and made arrangements for the insemination.

When she came in to do the procedure, the doctor allegedly inseminated the woman with his own semen, the lawsuit claims. Not knowing what had happened, the woman continued to see the doctor for prenatal care and had him deliver her twin children nine months later.

Dr Plautz remained the woman’s gynaecologist up until 2013. When her daughter, Ms Vece, turned 17, he performed the teenager’s first gynaecological exam even though he was her biological father, the suit states.

As the child began to experience ongoing health issues, including severe headaches, Ms Fedele asked Dr Plautz for information relating to her sperm donor. The doctor told her that a fire broke out at the sperm bank and all the records relating to her pregnancy were destroyed.

Dr Plautz died in 2015. In his obituary, he was described as a Navy veteran who served on a hospital’s board of directors and was a bishop in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

He was married twice and had 13 children, 31 grandchildren and 10 great-grandchildren.

In 2021, Mr Phelps received the results of a DNA test allegedly detailing that Dr Plautz was his biological father and the man’s children were his half-siblings.

Still, Mr Phelps thought the connections were related to his mother’s sperm donor and did not question the results.

It wasn’t until the Netflix documentary “Our Father” was released that Ms Vece asked her brother to see the results. The 2022 film is about Dr Donald Cline, a fertility doctor who fathered at least 90 children through alleged fertility fraud in Indiana.

Speaking to KTNV, Ms Vece said that Dr Plautz worked at the same hospital as Dr Cline for 10 years.

Upon seeing the results of the DNA test, she suspected that the relatives with the last name Plautz were likely related to the doctor both she and her mother saw.

The woman then took a DNA test which allegedly confirmed that the doctor’s children were also her half-siblings and told her mother.

Ms Fedele later contacted the sperm bank where the sample for her pregnancy came from. She was told that the bank closed in 2009 but that the facility did not have a fire when it was operational and no records were destroyed in a fire.

The siblings and mother are suing on counts of negligence, liability, negligent infliction of emotional distress, intentional infliction of emotional distress and fraud, among other counts.

The lawsuit argues that Dr Plautz’s actions are a violation of Nevada’s fertility fraud law SB309 and that inseminating a patient in such a way is a criminal act.

Additionally, it states that sperm donors are required to undergo screening to detect and prevent hereditary and genetic health issues that could be passed down through pregnancy.

The lawsuit states that Dr Plautz did not undergo such screening and his DNA contains conditions that could cause serious health conditions for the siblings and their children.

The plaintiffs are seeking damages exceeding $15,000. It’s not clear if Dr Plautz’s estate has responded to the lawsuit.