U.S., British families sue sperm bank
Complaints filed against Xytex over donor who had mental-health problems
Two more families, from Britain and the United States, are suing a sperm bank for selling them semen from a donor who turned out to have serious mental illness and a criminal past.
The complaints were filed Wednesday at a courthouse in Atlanta, Ga., close to where sperm bank Xytex Corp. is based.
This brings to six the number of families who have filed legal action against the sperm bank in relation to the same donor in the last three weeks. They come from three countries, including Canada, and have eight children between them, ages 1 to 9.
The claims haven’t been proven in court. Xytex maintains it has done nothing wrong and says it has always been upfront about letting would-be parents know that it does not verify information provided by men who sell their sperm to the company.
In the case of the British family, the parents learned in July 2014 that their donor was not the man they thought they chose from the Xytex website. At the time, they had a 2-year-old and a second child on the way, both conceived with the donor’s sperm.
“They chose him as their donor because he ticked every single box,” states their complaint, noting that Xytex’s website showed he was very healthy and highly intelligent with a genius-level IQ of 160.
The website also said he had bachelor’s and master’s degrees and was working on a PhD in artificial intelligence.
“They describe the process of choosing a donor as one of, if not the, most important decisions of their lives. They scoured the Xytex website, and they were led to believe that Xytex conducted rigorous medical testing and screening of donors,” the lawsuit continues.
It goes on to say they communicated with Xytex officials via email and phone and were told their donor was “one of the most popular sperm donors and that his sperm was rarely available.”
The donor was initially anonymous, known to the families only as #9623. But in an apparent slip-up, Xytex released his true identity — Chris Aggeles — in an email to some parents.
Those parents did some online digging and learned that Aggeles and his donor profile were very different. They discovered he had been convicted of burglary and had been diagnosed with schizophrenia.
A Star investigation published last month uncovered court documents showing Aggeles has also had diagnoses of bipolar and narcissistic personality disorders, and has described himself as having schizoaffective disorder.
He has a history of arrests for trespassing, DUI and disorderly conduct.
The Star also found his education was misrepresented and he had no degrees when he was donating sperm.
The court cases against Xytex also allege that an official from the company made up his high IQ.
The other new lawsuit is from a couple in Georgia who also say they thought they did their due diligence in selecting a donor.
“In reviewing the sperm donor profiles on the Xytex website (they) were impressed by the sperm donor qualification procedures that Xytex claimed it was using,” their complaint states. The couple has twins, now aged 5. Aggeles’ sperm has been used to create at least 36 children, according to a 2014 email the company sent to an Ontario complainant, Angie Collins, of Port Hope.
Nancy Hersh, lawyer for the families, said there may be more offspring because the donor’s sperm continued to be sold after that time.
Lawyer Ted Lavender, who represents Xytex, said his previous comments on the legal actions stand. He continues to point out that a previous lawsuit and appeal filed by Collins and her partner were dismissed.
Hersh said the new lawsuits are stronger and contain more allegations and information.
Hersh said she has some sympathy for Aggeles.
“It’s absolutely wrong for all of the blame to be placed on the shoulders of Chris Aggeles who was also a victim of Xytex,” she said.
“It was Xytex that failed to investigate his background. He suffers from mental illness and they took advantage of a vulnerable person who needed money. I’m sure this is only the tip of the iceberg,” she continued.