Talk about a sticky situation, folks.
49-year-old Neil Gaskell of the United Kingdom has won a five-figure settlement following a lawsuit against a sperm bank. Gaskell sued Care Fertility clinic after learning the sperm he’d donated to the IVF fertility clinic was used to sire the children of same-sex couples.
Gaskell initially turned to Care Fertility with his then-wife in 2010 to address the couple’s infertility issues. They ended up having three children together, all conceived through IVF. Doctors at the clinic noted that Gaskell’s sperm had “superman-strength” with “unusually high motility,” making him an ideal donor. The clinic then offered to treat Gaskell and his wife a discount, if he opted to donate more sperm. Gaskell did so under one caveat: he didn’t want his sperm given to any gay couples.
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“I accept that some people will find this uncomfortable and that people might think I’m homophobic, or against the idea of single mothers,” Gaskell told The Daily Mail. “But that couldn’t be further from the truth. This wasn’t about discriminating against same-sex couples, it wasn’t for religious reasons and I don’t accept that it’s bigotry. I think about these families – these children – every day, all the time.”
“But you can’t argue with biology,” Gaskell insisted. “It takes a man and a woman to create a child, and it’s my view that if children are being born with my sperm they must have a mother and a father.”
Gaskell donated his sperm just prior to the adoption of the Equality Act in the UK, which prohibits discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation. Therefore, when gay couples approached Care Fertility about surrogacy, the clinic didn’t hesitate to offer Gaskell’s donations. Ultimately, he sired five children (including a set of twins) to three same-sex couples. His sperm also conceived children of single mothers as well. Gaskell learned of the donations in 2016, after an unrelated audit of Care Fertility by Britain’s Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority turned up the history of his sperm.
“I was numb, everything after that was a bit of a blur,” Gaskell said of the news. “I spent 14 years never expecting to be a father, now I’ve got 16 kids.”
Gaskell claims the revelation destroyed his marriage; he and his former wife split after receiving the news. He launched his lawsuit shortly thereafter, which resulted in his payout this week. Ultimately the court ruled that Gaskell’s sperm should not have been used by Care Fertility following the passage of the Equality Act.
“I would like to turn the clock back and wish this had never happened, but now the most important thing is how these children feel,” Gaskell said of his court win. “If they’ve had a great upbringing it would be music to my ears. But if they’ve had a tough time it would be heart-breaking.”
Liquid Silver
So…equality law negated his bigotry? Too bad, so sad, take it somewhere else. If your marriage was that fragile, then you did something wrong.
Raphael
Did you read it till the end? It didn’t! His bigotry won, unfortunately.
Kangol2
So he’s homophobic and a misogynist but claims he isn’t. GAG! I feel bad for the couples whose children were produced by this bigot’s sperm, however “superman-strength” it might be and even if they are happy to have the children produced by it.
michel_banen
What a jerk [off].
controversial2019
Ah…that classic romance story:
Boy meets girl
Boy falls in love with girl
Boy marries girl
Boy finds out that his sperm has been used, without his authority and through no fault of his own, in a way that contradicts his wishes
Boy gets dumped by girl for the above reason
Sure. Sure. The use of your sperm by same-sex people is what ruined your marriage – couldn’t possibly be ANYTHING else (eg your wife disliked how much shame you were causing her by launching such a disgraceful tirade against the clinic)
butchqueen
You can’t cloak your homophobia with faith.
It’s as disingenulous as “blue lives matter”. Bitches aren’t Smurfs! Their skin tone does not result in persection.
Just say that you don’t care about Black people or homosexuals. It’s ok, all the white supremacists who have permeated the government and law enforcement will agree.
MrMichaelJ
Um, so by his own logic God obviously didn’t want him to have kids or WTF would he need a fertility clinic for?
JanDivine
If he’s so worried about the kids I wonder if he is giving the money to them ????
Prax07
The clinic should’ve refused his sample when he issued his demands of who he’d allow to use it.
Creamsicle
“I would like to turn the clock back and wish this had never happened, but now the most important thing is how these children feel,”
Well I’m sure they feel great now that their sperm donor has said he wishes he’d never sired them.
I actually doubt that the children care what he thinks of them. He’s a sperm donor. It’s the least possible commitment. I’ve seen women who call their deadbeat ex-husbands sperm donors for that reason.
Don’t get me wrong, donating sperm to friends trying to conceive is an extremely generous act. Doing it for a discount is purely transactional.
gaym50ish
He and his wife split after receiving the news? Was it because she saw what a jerk he is?
cuteguy
How convenient this religious zealot uses his so called faith to justify his homophobia and misogyny yet his so called faith didn’t stop him from using IVF for his unnatural procreation. Typical of these hypocritical religious fools to cherry pick what they choose to support
scotty
look, all they wanted were two shots ba-dump…tsss