Jennifer Cramblett, a white woman in Uniontown, Ohio, is suing a sperm bank after they gave her vials of sperm from an African-American donor, leading to the birth of her mixed daughter. Cramblett and her girlfriend, Amanda Zinkon, requested sperm from a Caucasian donor, but noticed the mix-up when Cramblett was pregnant and the couple wanted more sperm to have another child from the same donor. The lawsuit reports that after reviewing paperwork, the couple realized that their original request for Caucasian sperm donor number 380 was mistaken for donor number 330, who is African American.
Cramblett is suing Midwest Sperm Bank for “wrongful birth and breach of warranty, citing the emotional and economic losses suffered.” The lawsuit states, “On August 21, 2012, Jennifer gave birth to Payton, a beautiful, obviously mixed-race baby girl. Jennifer bonded with Payton easily and she and Amanda love her very much. Even so, Jennifer lives each day with fears, anxieties and uncertainty about her future and Payton’s future.”
The couple expressed concerns of raising Payton in their all-white community where residents still hold to negative stereotypes of people of color. Cramblett says she didn’t even know any black people until going to college at University of Akron and that her hometown is too “racially intolerant.” She expressed that she must travel to a black neighborhood where she is not overtly welcomed just to get her daughter’s hair cut, and that she is stressed at the thought of her daughter going to an all-white school. For the sake of her family’s wellbeing, Cramblett’s therapists have advised that she move to a more racially diverse community. The sperm bank has sent Cramblett an apology and a refund for the vials of incorrect sperm.
This is indeed very complex, and every parent has the right to prefer children of his or her own race. But it seems that if one truly wanted children, and such a mistake did occur, the parent wouldn’t be distraught to this degree. Parenting comes with the responsibility of protecting your children’s physical, mental and emotional beings at all costs. In the case of Cramblett, if raising her biracial daughter in an all-white community is a potential threat to the child’s social and psychological health, the obvious solution seems to move to a more tolerant community. It’s also particularly interesting that the suing couple is lesbian and has probably experienced their own counts of intolerance. One would think their experiences would make them that much more accepting of their bi-racial daughter, but I guess not. It’s a tough situation to judge, though. What would you do?