http://www.jewishworldreview.com | (KRT) Test-tube babies and powerful fertility drugs have changed the notion that there is a usual way to usher a child into the world.
But a Chicago doctor claims his one-time lover - using deception and a decidedly low-tech method - conceived their child in a most unusual way.
In a lawsuit reinstated this week by the Illinois Appellate Court, Dr. Richard Phillips claims that his former girlfriend, Dr. Sharon Irons, secretly collected sperm from him, then later inseminated herself.
He has sued Irons for intentional affliction of emotional distress, claiming that she impregnated herself with "Dr. Phillips' deceptively acquired semen," according to the lawsuit.
But the lawyer for Irons, who is a Chicago physician herself, says the baby was conceived the old-fashioned way and that Phillips has concocted a story to get out of paying child support.
"My client is not some 19-year-old groupie who found some multimillionaire basketball player to come up with this scheme," said attorney Enrico J. Mirabelli of Chicago. "She's an attractive woman, educated. She doesn't need to trap someone or trick someone into giving her a baby."
Mirabelli and Irons said none of the court documents have included her version of how the child was conceived because they were focused on technical merits and legal arguments.
A Cook County Circuit Court judge threw out the lawsuit against Irons, but the appellate court in an opinion issued Wednesday reinstated the case. Without making any ruling on whether the facts alleged in the case are true, the court agreed the lawsuit should go to trial, agreeing that if true, defendant's actions would be "extreme and outrageous" conduct.
The appellate court pointed out that the Irons is accused of having "deceitfully engaged in sexual acts, which no reasonable person would expect could result in pregnancy, to use plaintiff's sperm in an unorthodox, unanticipated manner yielding extreme consequences."
Phillips contends that the couple engaged only in oral sex - a total of three times - and that Irons saved his semen to later impregnate herself.
Irons, 40, who lives in Olympia Fields, Ill., with her 5-year-old daughter, said Thursday that Phillips was happy when he learned she was pregnant during their relationship, which began after she separated from her husband.
The two had been friends for about a decade, Irons said, adding that Phillips, 54, offered to marry her when they learned of her pregnancy, which was the result of normal intercourse, she said.
"He even said to me, `I want you to resign from your job, because I will not have any wife of mine have to work,'" she said.
But three months later, Irons said Phillips cut off all contact with her. She said she pursued a paternity case about a year later in part to encourage a relationship between Phillips and their daughter.
In 2001, Phillips countersued, alleging that she duped him into getting pregnant. In his filing, Phillips claims that Irons' theft of his semen led to severe emotional distress and that he "often feels as if he is trapped in a terrible nightmare wherein he cannot wake."
He further claims that when they began their relationship, Phillips thought Irons was already divorced and not just separated from her husband, and that he ended the relationship when he learned she was still married.
"Dr. Phillips is burdened with feelings of betrayal and his ability to trust has been greatly diminished, first by Dr. Irons' malicious lies about being divorced and then by Dr. Irons' covert acts to steal his semen to impregnate herself," according to the lawsuit.
Phillips said Thursday that he was pleased with the appellate decision to reinstate the case.
"They're saying that the case had merit," said Phillips, who would not discuss the lawsuit in detail but said he stands by the allegations in it.
Irons also said she is looking forward to her day in court. She said, though, she is most hopeful that Phillips will eventually seek a relationship with their child.
In October, a Cook County judge ruled that, based on DNA tests, Phillips is the father of Irons' child and ordered him to pay $800 a month in child support, Mirabelli said. Mirabelli said the case is not over because Phillips has requested a reconsideration of that decision, and issues of back support are not resolved.
Legal experts agree that even if a child is conceived the biological father is responsible financially for the child.
But attorney Michael Haber said even if Phillips is held financially responsible for the child, he still has grounds to sue, because a person who engages in oral sex does not expect to become a parent.
"Certainly, he had no expectation that he was participating in the birth of a child," Haber said of Phillips.
Another law expert agreed Phillips potentially has a case against Irons, if he can prove that she went to such great lengths to deceive him and impregnate herself with his sperm.
But Sylvia A. Law, a professor at New York University Law School, said unless Phillips can get air-tight evidence, such as proof that Irons confided in a friend about deceitful behavior, the lawsuit is a tough one.
"It's going to be impossible for him to prove" the case, she predicted.
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