Doctor ‘did not steal sperm from lover’

A DOCTOR can press a claim for emotional distress after learning his former lover used his sperm to have a baby, a US court ruled.

But he cannot claim theft, the ruling said, because the sperm were hers to keep.

The ruling by a Chicago appeals court sends Dr Richard Phillips’s distress case back to trial court.

Dr Phillips accuses Dr Sharon Irons of a “calculated, profound personal betrayal” after their affair six years ago, saying she secretly kept semen after they had oral sex, then used it to get pregnant.

He said he didn’t find out about the child for nearly two years, when Dr Irons filed a paternity lawsuit. DNA tests confirmed Dr Phillips was the father, the court papers state. Dr Phillips was ordered to pay about $650 a month in child support.

Dr Phillips sued Dr Irons, claiming he has been “trapped in a nightmare”.

A court dismissed Dr Phillips’s lawsuit in 2003.

But the appeals court ruled that, if Dr Phillips’s story is true, Dr Irons “deceitfully engaged in sexual acts, which no reasonable person would expect could result in pregnancy.

The judges, however, agreed that Dr Irons didn’t steal the sperm. “She asserts that when plaintiff ‘delivered’ his sperm, it was a gift,” the decision said.