A gay man who helped his friend conceive two children might be rethinking his kind deed, as she is now suing some him sixteen years later. That woman, now a medical doctor, is taking advantage of a loophole in Ontario law that allows for known sperm and egg donors to be held liable for child support based on biology alone, the Montreal Gazette reports.
There is a bill before the provincial legislature to amend the Children’s Law Reform Act, which could close the loophole, but perhaps too late for Michael Ranson, said his lawyer, Shirley Levitan.
Ranson met Dr. Amie Cullimore in 1991 and in 2000 she called on him to fulfill an old promise to donate his sperm so she could undergo IVF, court documents state.
He agreed to stay involved in their lives, since he had no plans of having his own children, but “never would have donated if had he known she was seeking any financial support from him,” his legal team claims.
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The pair signed an agreement in 2002, granting full custody to the mother and saying she “would not look to (Ranson) for any financial support.”
If Ranson is successful in her suit Cullimore will be responsible for four years of retroactive child support, since 2012, as well as other expenses, including post-secondary education.
“He feels like now he’s being punished for having been a good spuncle [slang term for known sperm donor],” his legal representative said. “How does he maintain a good relationship with these kids now?
“This is not something he signed on for.”
Low Country Boy
I cannot believe this would be the law in Canada. Clearly, this woman has no real regard for either her friend or her children. Disgusting.
ChrisK
Wow. What an evil bitch.
Hank
he was very naive.
MacAdvisor
First, everyone should know, retroactive child support is unconstitutional. Thus, in the US, this wouldn’t happen. At worst, the fellow would have two years to go (assuming the child is now 16).
Second, I doubt the claim will survive in Canada as the mother comes to court with unclean hands. She received the benefit of her bargain and now seeks to change the terms after receiving her part of the bargain. However, child support is for the child, not the mother, so such claims are typically answer through the “best interest of the child test.” If the father is required to pay child support in order to help the child, he would also be allowed other parental rights, as the earlier agreement is clearly void. At 16, the child would have a voice in child custody, for example. If this women is as horrible to her child as she is to her friend, the child may well choose to live with his father.
Sammy Schlipshit
@MacAdvisor:
Thanks for such an informative comment.
Frank Bárcenas
Why I will never donate sperm no matter how creative I am nor any capacity of intellect. Do you people know that I only get a cold since elementary school when I go through a lot of stress for months I am age 42? I had been asked by two lesbian couples to be their sperm donor, the other mom was unforgiving towards her other step daughter’s mistakes and attempts at getting attention from her real mom, then I told her, my D.N.A. needs a lot of freedom and less supervision with the knowing that it has the capacity for being responsible and is perfectly capable of showing why I am trustworthy to have little supervision even as a teenager, and able to learn from observation with little teaching. Then the next lesbian couple, the one that wanted to give birth got cancer in her uterus. Plus I am psychic and have telepathy. The article said that they are suing because of a Biology Loophole. That would only work if their male friend was asked a series of health, mental well-being, and such questions and he had deliberately lied about those things. Since they asked him, and he gained no money from it, who owes ? I would dismiss the court case and say that he needs to ditch those calculating women that said they were his friends. Its more than funny that someone can stumble on a loophole like that, then ambush someone with child support after being perfectly clear that they do not want to raise children nor be a father. I think all gay men should just NOT donate sperm anymore, or for a while, in protest to calculating “friends” until we can raise our own kids with out harassment and threat of other parties. Not all females are lile that if they are straight or lesbian or trans. I think sometimes that people think money is more important. I’ve seen people do some of the most awful things out of jealousy alone. Then greed…. that sounds like a World Lesson.
radiooutmike
What a quandary.
It is hard to comment without being misogynistic towards the mother or being critical to the father even though this was most certain to come up.
But here goes, his legal representative asks, ‘how will he keep up the relationship with the children now?’ He has to pay some kind of support to keep his relationship with them in good order. The financials of both sides aren’t given, so we can’t know what burden both sides have. Child support is determined by a formula, so he would not pay anymore or any less than anyone else.
karl_johanson
“It is hard to comment without being misogynistic towards the mother …”
No it isn’t. The mother is self-centred, mercenary, and her word is worth nothing (as per “The pair signed an agreement in 2002, granting full custody to the mother and saying she “would not look to (Ranson) for any financial support.”). It isn’t misogynist to point that out. If someone tried to claim that all women are that way, based on this example, that would be misogynist.
Frank Bárcenas
I had to be the one to investigate the source of my psychic and telepathy problems even having to dive into psychology, the human mind and the brain, thought waves like Alpha Brain Waves, etc, sleep cycles, the creative mind, diet based on physical D.N.A. and blood type, then things such as Metaphysics and Sciences like Spiritual D.N.A., age 28 it was theorized that there are more strands of D.N.A. on Spiritual Levels, they counted up to 12 somehow, I then thought I think the D.N.A. strand on Higher Frequencies and even lower frequencies, are a cylinder in appearance as a whole instead of just the double helix or 12 helixes. That is beside the point. I know that Spirit life is real, and with Electronic Harassment coming out, I know that psychic people and energy sensitive people (even energy healer, energy manipulation capable people) might soon be great people to ask for sperm or egg donors, that way we could have met the people interested in our type of D.N.A. aside from the government trying to steal our D.N.A. patterns. I even told a therapist that the brain chemistry of the Psychic and Telepathic person, might be different than that of a 5 sensory person, but it is even different than that of someone who is insane. I had a teacher who is psychic and has a Ph.D. in Psychology and said since the BiPolar Diagnosis was made, she only found one real bipolar person. The others having source of problem, unknown. So far “Electronic Harassment” is a possible source, in California, a lady got to sue, due to a signal tower by her home was causing symptoms and she was energy sensitive. Then keep in mind Spirit life and they get affected by our signals so they will run to a person who hears and mention it or go insane. Affected Demonic Spirits have been known to attack people.
A Psychic had said that real psychics don’t have demonic experiences nor hear demonic clairaudience. I am on the verge of narrowing it down. Psychic and Telepathic people if untampered with and in the right environment have great hearts lots of times. (My psychic abilities only worked and were more accurate if I felt love, love of friends, family, spouse, and even coffee! The moment fear or trauma gets in, my accuracy is GONE!
I think the guy should counter sue somehow. Not only that, as a psychic I had to “settle” for using current psychology diagnosis loosely as a means to be able to get things such as anxiety meds. I had gone from age 20 to age 28 not even using aspirin nor cold medication. It pissed me off when I had to start using anxiety meds for psychic/demonic experiences. Synthetic Meds affect us three generations out, I had fast self healing too. Still, I won’t even donate sperm, nor allow knowing of my D.N.A. pattern. (Before we are born, we have some say in our physical DNA, etc.) to beat my parents at smoking and drinking a lot, I had to use a blood type that my mom was able to carry me, but it was neither of their own blood types, yet Paternity Testing, my father is my biological father. (Something like smoking parents when you are not ready to consider the ramifications of smoking on your own, could throw off what you were trying to do). I even remembered a memory of my first lifetime on Earth, and was able to hear thought out into the future. Age 27/28 I thought to my nephew in the future, then stopped that ability when people were using psychic warfare with me.
Frank Bárcenas
Age 25/26 I thought to God, will my nephews be friends when they are adults, like they were their first few years before going to elementary school? Then both of my nephews appeared as adults standing side by side, my nephews looking a lot like they do age 18.
Brian
This is what happens when having children becomes an arrangement rather than a result of intimacy between a man and woman.
Allyn
In 1965 while living in Las Vegas,I was asked by a lesbian couple to donate sperm “for their family”, I declined because this scenario crossed my mind.
A friend said “they would never do that to me” and volunteered his sperm. Within 2 years, they ( the lesbians) had broken up and my friend was sued for child support which he was stuck paying for 18 years…..so much for good deeds
startenout
Some people are just psych-o!
ppp111
@Brian:
If I didn’t know any better I’d say you sound awfully like a Tea Partier[grin]. Seriously, I agree with some previous posters that it’s probably not a good idea to be a sperm donor since, when all is said and done, the court systems don’t care about the father. I wouldn’t go so far to say he was naive because he thought they were friends. It’s still a shame though.
@Allyn:
I’m curious as to what your friend feels now. I think gay men should seriously think twice before becoming sperm donors because the fact we’re gay makes unfriendly family courts take a second look at us. Just my thoughts anyway.
CaliKyle
@MacAdvisor: The specifics of the recerenced Canadian case aside, retroactive child support is not unconstitutional in the US. Although the term “unconsititutional” is subjective. However, parents in the US who fail to meet their court ordered child support payments are subject to fees, penalties and yes, retroactive support payments.
CaliKyle
@CaliKyle: *referenced
CaliKyle
@Sammy Schlipshit: Hardly informative since we do not know if there was a formalized legal agreement between the two regarding the insemination process and subsequent parental obligations or if this was a case of one party simply handing over a sperm sample to the other with nothing more than a hope and a prayer that a baby would result. Also, different countries, different laws and approaches.
Chris
It’s unfortunate that we’re at such a place. But seeing that someone who could clearly afford to support the child and entered into the agreement with that understanding–that such a person is allowed to go back on a signed agreement, then any prospective donor has no choice but to protect himself.
Get an excellent divorce lawyer to draw up your agreement when “helping” out a friend like this individual. And if there is ANY way that you could possibly be stuck with any obligations that you don’t want, then decline the request.
Eye of the Beholder
A disingenuous woman, but he thought he knew better for being a gay man. Serves him right.
jdboston617
Their “contract” appears to clear the man of financial responsibility. What a loathsome woman and to drag her child into a court case is disgusting.