Portfolio Norman, the ‘god of babies' who pregnant their patients with their semen
WARNING: It is recommended not to read this article if you are in the midst of an assisted reproduction process in which donor semen will be used.
The one that was supposed to be the happiest day of the life of the Canadian Trudy Moore - on December 29, 2007 - became one of the most distressing for this infertile woman who finally fulfilled that day her dream of being a mother thanksto the subrogated gestation of his sister.Blood unites and the one that would be aunt of the newborn agreed to inseminate with the semen of her brother -in.
But when the girl was born, something caught the attention of doctors.Fortunately, it was not a disease or something that put his life at risk, but it was certainly an anomaly.The baby, to whom they named Samantha, had a positive RH blood factor, something perfectly normal if it were not because both his father and his aunt and pregnant were negative Rh, which implies that his offspring could not be Rh+.It was impossible for him to be the daughter of his biological father.
To fulfill the dream of his life, Trudy Moore and Matthew Guest had gone to a renowned specialist in fertility treatments, Bernard Norman Barwin, a gynecologist of South African origin established for decades in Canada.His curriculum impressed: former director of the Fertility Clinic of the General Hospital of Ottawa, one of the most important in the country, was a professor at the University of the same name, had received the Canada Order in 1997 and presided over several associations related to its scopeof action.Beyond that, the gynecologist called Baby God (god of babies) because his success rate in assisted reproduction procedures was almost miraculous.
Barwin receiving the order of Canada, from the documentary 'Los Niños de Barwin'.CTV
The gynecologist, when their judicial problems had already begun.
When Trudy called him to tell him what had happened, he acknowledged that there could have been an error and told him what semen could have used respecting, yes, the anonymity established by law.Samantha's mother then contacted another recipient of that alleged semen -Jacqueline Slinn- and proposed to analyze whether her two daughters were sisters of a biological father.The surprise jumped when it came out that.The result: two demands for the price of one, which ended in an extrajudicial agreement of which the details have not been known.
Despite this complaint and that agreement, Barwin continued to carry out fertility treatments in his clinic until 2012, although he continued to act as a gynecologist until 2014, the year he decided to close his center.By then, the complaints of the two women of 2010 had been added at least five more.The same phrases always came from his mouth: "I reiterate my apologies" and "it has been an involuntary mistake, I don't know what could happen".
Jacqueline Slinn and her daughter Bridget.The Globe and Mail.
The gynecologist, married and with four children, is 82 years old today and this week received the news that Judge Calum Macleod has agreed that his victims receive one of the greatest compensation for such a case -and the largest in Canada -: 13.3 million Canadian dollars (about 9.2 million euros).Although it may seem a lot of money, the individual amount that each victim will receive will not be able to exceed 35.000 euros.Barwin will not be paid, but the Canadian Medical Protection Association.
The number of participants in this collective demand (Class Action, in English) is far from the seven that were known in 2012 and that they demanded on their own, and already amounts to 244 people;Among the plaintiffs, 100 children born after the treatments of Barwin: 83 do not know who the semen that was used to generate them and 17 have found out that it is the sperm of the gynecologist himself.
In addition to deceived parents and children who did not know their biological origin, men who donated semen in the clinic have also demanded and do not know if it was used by Barwin without their authorization.A DNA bank that will also be created with that money will serve to find out.
El médico holandés que 'tuvo' 18 hijos
In 2017, the history of the Dutch gynecologist Jan Karbaat, owner of a fertility clinic that secretly inseminated dozens of women who went to their center.Instead of the sperm of anonymous donors that the clients had selected as a catalog -a practice allowed in the Netherlands -Karbaat used his own.DNA tests carried out with the help of one of their legitimate children showed that he was the biological father of at least 18 babies conceived in the center.Died before he could condemn him.
The fall to hell
The fall to Baby God's hell was prior to this judicial decision -which was necessary to confirm the agreement that victims and executioner had reached in July of this year-.In 2013, the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario found him guilty of three cases of bad práxis.The license was withdrawn for two months and was forced to pay the costs of the process.Again, an apology and, again, no idea what could have happened.
That same year the order of Canada was withdrawn, while the number of complaints was in crescendo.The most important is the one that has just concluded with the largest economic agreement in the country.The protagonists: Davina, Daniel and Rebecca Dixon, this last daughter of the former, who in 1989 went to the clinic of the reputed gynecologist because they had problems to conceive in a natural way.
Until 2016, no one suspected anything, but something changed on that date.The Guardian tells that it was the diagnosis of celiacy to Rebecca - a disease that no one had in the family - which made them suspect.In a documentary broadcast on Canadian television entitled The Children of Barwin, everything that happened after.Paternity test, discovering that your biological origin is different from the one you thought and an unexpected final turn: it not only turned out that Daniel Dixon was not his biological father but, after various investigations, he discovered that Barwin himself was.
Rebecca Dixon and his parents, Davina and Daniel.
It was they, the Dixon, who initiated the collective claim to which many more people were subsequently added, including a man conceived 40 years ago and who until he did not read the history in the newspapers had never doubted the biological paternity of his father.The lack of control is such that the lawsuit will remain open four months after the agreement, time in which more complainants can enter.In the five years that have elapsed since the first complaints, the College of Physicians finally withdrew his license to Barwin, retired five years before.
Rebecca has turned out to be - until the moment - biological sister of 16 strangers who, in turn, did not know that they were children of the gynecologist and that they are inside the collective demand.At least, she knows who is the semen used to conceive it.
Fraud after fraud
In a case that slightly remembers that of the so -called Dr. Death -the American back surgeon who wounded and killed several of his patients and went from hospital to hospital without anyone seeming to realize what he did and avoid new victims -,What most attracts the attention of Barwin's story is all the time he acted while new patients continued to arrive at their clinic.
Because the fraudulent history of the gynecologist dates back long before making his first in vitro fertilization and affects many more fields of his professional practice, as the Canadian press discovered following the investigation of his various demands.
When Barwin arrived in Canada in 1973 from Ireland, where he studied medicine after traveling from his native South Africa, he was hired by the Ottawa General Hospital to direct the fertility clinic of this public center.He protects him a specialization in gynecology in the United Kingdom, but it was an indispensable requirement to approve the exam to act as a gynecologist in Canada.I was three years old to achieve it.He never got it.
The 2016 edition of the Boston Marathon.Gtres
According to The Star newspaper, in 1984 he left the hospital and still had no permission to act as a gynecologist in the country, but when he went to the private one - something that said he did the need for freedom - no one was asked again.
While becoming famous as the Milagros maker in the field of fertility, the gynecologist also acquired notoriety in another area.Sport enthusiast, in 2000.And, despite being one of his first races of this type, 14 of his group remained with an impressive time: three hours and 14 minutes.
But an Ottawa Citizen journalist discovered that Barwin received a letter from the career organizers a few days after getting home.Since a few years before, the famous marathon had established anti -brain systems, placing cameras at strategic points to check the trajectory of the best runners.Who failed to demonstrate that he had gone through these points?Indeed, he.
The newspaper first declared that there must have been an error;Then, that an inguinal hernia had made him leave the race, but that he had managed to get to the goal and cross it with some friends "because he made him excited".
Not happy with this feat, Barwin repeated fraud in the Ottawa marathon a year later.This time it was simpler.The race consisted of two laps and he joined the goal when his teammates had run the double.
The first demand
However, that these sports traps will go unnoticed is not something that has consequences for anyone's health.What is striking is that nobody noticed that a couple of lesbian women sued the specialist in 1995 for exactly the same as what was accused of tens of times later: use the donor semen that was not.
Loree-Ann Huard and Wanda Cowton did it, but there are no details of how or why.Among other reasons, because the extrajudicial agreement they reached with the gynecologist prevented them from talking to the media.
If the College of Physicians knew, which he explained that everything had been a mistake and that he would take measures so that he did not repeat again.Obviously, he did not.
In Spain, unlikely but not impossible
Rocío Núñez Calonge, doctor in biology and expert in assisted and bioethics reproduction, explains to El Español |Porfolio that is "unlikely, but not impossible" that in Spain a similar case occurred.The first reason are quality controls.One of those who is established is our country is a system called Witness, which controls the traceability of all semen samples, but it is not the only.Another system is the so -called Sirha, whose implementation will be mandatory by decree, but that already use many clinics.Thanks to him, all donors have to be registered with their biographical and health data, although anonymized.The results of donations are also recorded, so that you can always know who a baby is a biological son.Finally, Núñez explains, Spain has a characteristic that makes it difficult for a situation to occur like this: the obligation that the donation is anonymous causes that there is abundance of donors.In other countries - in Canada there is a mixed system - people who yield their semen have to give their data and risk their biological children may want to contact them when reaching adulthood, which makes few men beencourage donation."The uncontrollable part is that there is a person like Dr. Barwin, with a huge ego, what he does is use his own semen to perform these techniques," concludes the expert.
