Dr. Ben Ramaley: Fertility Doctor Accused Of Using Own Sperm To Artificially Inseminate Woman

Dr. Ben Ramaley, a Greenwich, Connecticut fertility doctor stands accused of not only impregnating a patient with the wrong man's sperm, but --in a shocking twist-- using his own instead.

The prominent doctor was supposed to artificially inseminate an unidentified woman with her husband's sperm after they first consulted him in 2002. After several attempts, the woman became pregnant and gave birth to twins.

According to court records, the parents were surprised at the "fair complexion" of the children as the woman's husband is African-American. A 2004 DNA test confirmed their suspicions that the husband was not in fact the biological father of the twins.

In 2005 the couple sued Ramaley, alleging that the doctor "intentionally inserted his own sperm into" the wife. Ramaley denied the allegations.

While the suit was settled out of court, the Connecticut Public Health Department began investigating the doctor for wrongdoing and fined him $10,000 dollars and ordered him to stop performing artificial inseminations.

The Health Department allowed Ramaley to keep his medical license and he is still practicing in Connecticut today. However, the doctor forfeited his New York medical license due to the same misconduct.

No criminal inquiry has been launched into the matter.

Comments

[Shake-A-Spear]

Could this be considered rape?

[LeroyJenkins]

maybe worse

[richard5]

I would bet this doctor is probably a physically unpleasant looking person who could not get a date. This is outrageous and totally breach of trust between doctor and patient. I am surprise that the penality was so little. Is this man paying child support? He should be until each of these kids he is accused of fathering in this sneaky way becomes adult. And that should include college tuition as well. That should teach him a real lesson.

[Really Get a Grip]

Richard...­.I can assure you he is not a physically unpleasant looking. He has a wonderful family and if you actually take the time to read the reference, his DNA was never compared against the "donor" DNA...so all of this bluster amounts to salacious slander. Here I thought we were all "innocent until proven guilty" but your careless use of "bet" and "probably" indicates that you are one of the dolts who are mired in jaded cynicism. Perhaps we can agree that his office was poorly organized and made an egregious error somewhere along the line. However, without knowing (ref: DNA) we probably should not rush to judgement. I bet you would be a fine addition to a Jerry Springer audience though....­.

[LeroyJenkins]

someone got paid

[FebM]

Bill the bastard for child support! thats the only way he would learn a lesson.

[Really Get a Grip]

Again, let us actually sift through the accusations and perform some DNA testing to determine that he is the source DNA before accepting this conjecture.

[Mirabai305]

There are studies that show that in the animal kingdom, when a species is over-populated in a specific area, the birth rate declines naturally until balance is restored. I wonder sometimes if the growing infertility problem in this country is partly a result of that same phenomenon.

[alarmbell]

Interesting, but I don't know if Connecticut is overpopulated!

[psk]

This is so wrong on too many levels. Sadly it happens more often than we'd like to think.

When a couple go to one of these fertility clinics they spend upwards of tens of thousands of dollars to conceive a child of their own. What this doctor did was not just narcissistic, egotistical and self serving but also denied this man's right to pass his own genes down to his own offspring.

For the woman it is a huge personal violation, not just of trust but of body. The children have had what should have been their heritage stolen from them.

[Really Get a Grip]

I agree inasmuch as this is a huge personal violation, it must be terrible to finally get the child you have been trying for years to have, only to note the phenotype mismatch at birth. Perhaps vials were mixed up or bar codes incorrectly tracked. Remember the stories of surgeries of the wrong foot? Are we really going to believe that a medical school graduate with years of experience in the field of reproduction had no idea that substituting Caucasian sperm for Negroid sperm would go unnoticed? Or perhaps that his level of narcissism was so elevated that he thought such an obvious blunder was worth losing his license? Occam's razor people....­.

[The Albany Kid]

Sounds like the "Seed" episode from Season 5 of Law & Order.

[kareemachan]

Dang, you beat me to that comment!

[The Albany Kid]

Gotta be quick on the Huff Post! :)

[ginger-kid]

it already was for law and order svu!

[greyhound2]

The best one I heard some months ago was a doctor in, I believe Michigan or thereabouts, who donated sperm to a sperm bank and has fathered 46 kids. What a great deal. He gets to spread his sperm around and doesn't even have to pay child support or anything! Now, that guy is smart!

[ChelleAgain]

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0109193/

[Billpoch]

With economic times the way they are everyone is looking for ways ways to save money. The Doctor was looking for ways to cut costs.Lean and Six Sigma are the ways of the future. Way to go Dr. Ben Ramely (Honorary Six Sigma Black Belt). Thinking outside the box. Great Job!

[JoeAmerican]

The crime is of little importance. For those who have children, it is beyond comprehension that after so much effort to have them, you find out you've given birth to someone else's kids. For the mother, they are only half hers. The father, left out. The other half, their family history, etc., they don't know. The father is detached, both parents frustrated, trying to love these children but reminded every moment what happened. What an incredibly destructive thing to do.

But there's hope. I suspect you can view them as half-adopted, and learn to love them as any children needing a home and loving parents, with the added enjoyment of twins.

You have my sympathies. I hope this doctor is forced to provide you signficant child care for the rest of his life.

[metalpipe]

I completely agree, and commend your post for it's compassion towards the parents. I wouldn't stop suing this doctor until he was unable to ever practice again anywhere.

[DorianBrandon]

No. Do not take that course of action. Simply ensure that he is legally bound to provide financial support for these children, without parental rights, until they have successfully completed their university studies.

Just what was this immoral doctor thinking?

[garystartswithg]

i used to make mannequins and give them my nose -- its a very adriatic. all of us are narcissists in our own special way.

[noweknow]

It's like Cheney nominated himself to be the veep.

[topguide]

The bigger question is how many more of his kids are there? I doubt this is the first time he has done this.

[brady61995]

and is he responsible for child support? if so will he have visitation whenever he gets out of jail?

[heidiMT]

I swear this was an episode on Law & Order years ago.

[Fudgefase]

Not just Law and Order! What a nasty man.

[ricmarc]

good grief!!!! real life rips off a law and order svu episode!

[heidiMT]

I didn't see your post before I did mine. I saw that episode and it was really creepy.

[Pyfagorus]

I could have sworn there was also a Criminal Intent episode with the same idea.

[brady61995]

probably not the firs time its happened or the last. they get their ideas from actual cases most of the time.

[ricmarc]

i think all 3 of the law and orders have done this.

[Gin1234]

There have been cases like this over the years. It isn't the first time it's happened. There have been cases too, of sperm being mixed up and given to the wrong couple resulting in bi-racial babies being born to white parents. I think I remember one from a couple of years ago. Law and Order didn't have to think very hard to come up with the episodes.