IVF & FERTILITY MISCONDUCT

PEIFFER WOLF: 23ANDME … AND WHO? MOTHER TAKES LEGAL ACTION AFTER DAUGHTER UNCOVERS “FERTILITY FRAUD” BY MANHATTAN OB GYN NOW LIVING IN MIAMI AREA

Daughter Learned Her Biological Father Was Her Mother’s Fertility Doctor by Taking 23andMe Home DNA Test Kit; Law Firm Renews Call for Crackdown to End “Wild West Days” of U.S. Fertility Industry.

NEW YORK CITY///May 25, 2021///A New Jersey mother took action today in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York after learning of the “medical rape” committed by a former Park Avenue Ob Gyn doctor now living in Aventura, a luxury enclave outside of Miami.  The new lawsuit is the latest in a series of fertility fraud cases being handled nationwide by Peiffer Wolf Carr Kane & Conway (Peiffer Wolf).

The suit by the mother, Bianca Voss of New Jersey, names Dr. Martin D. Greenberg (NY License No. 143933), who maintained an Ob Gyn practice in Manhattan. It is not yet known how many patients of Dr. Greenberg are victims of his misconduct or how many children are the result of his fertility fraud.

In 1983, Bianca Voss wanted to be a mother and she visited the offices of Dr. Greenberg for fertility services.  She paid Dr. Greenberg to procure the sperm of an anonymous donor to be used to impregnate her in an intrauterine insemination procedure.  Dr. Greenberg indicated he would obtain the sperm from an anonymous donor; he never disclosed that he would insert his own sperm into Ms. Voss. In 2010, he was barred from performing surgery in New York State.

Roberta Voss was born in 1984.  In September of 2020, she took a 23andMe home DNA kit test, which clearly identified Dr. Greenberg as her father.  As the lawsuit filed today explains: “Upon receiving the devastating news of Greenberg’s shocking conduct, Ms. Voss’  daughter reached out to Greenberg via 23andMe.com and email. She did so because she wanted to obtain her family medical history (i.e., Greenberg’s medical history). Aware that Greenberg’s son, unfortunately, passed away at an early age, she wanted to know if she may have inherited a concerning medical condition. She also wanted to know if she may have passed on such a condition to her own child. However, Greenberg did not respond.”

In the last seven years, Peiffer Wolf has handled hundreds of IVF/genetic material cases that have involved well over 1,000 people. In 2019, the firm spearheaded the Peiffer Wolf push for national legislation to rein in the abuses of IVF and fertility clinics.  Commenting on this case, attorney Joseph Peiffer said: “Dr. Martin D. Greenberg secretly inserted his own sperm into his patient, Bianca Voss. He did so without her consent and against her wishes. Some people call this horrific act ‘medical rape.’ But regardless of what you choose to call it, Greenberg’s heinous and intentional misconduct is unethical, unacceptable, and illegal.  Unfortunately, the Voss family is among thousands like it across the United States where an epidemic of fertility fraud is now underway.  We have to do whatever it takes to rein in this rogue industry run amok.”

Bianca Voss, the mother, said: “In 1983, I reached out for help to what I assumed was a reputable doctor.  I put my faith in the hands of this person who then violated both my trust and me in an unspeakable way. This situation has upended my life and my family and the damage it is doing and the emotional scars that it is creating may never heal.  I want Dr. Greenberg to have to answer for what he did.  He needs to be held accountable for his actions.”

Roberta Voss, the daughter, said: “Until a few months ago, I thought I might learn something interesting by taking the 23andMe home DNA kit.  I did not expect to find that my mother was violated by her doctor.  Now, I am haunted by the idea of a medical rapist being my father and the enormous deceit that went into my own conception.”

The United States is in the midst of uncovering thousands of fertility fraud cases, in which IVF/Ob Gyn doctors have abused their position of trust and authority by secretly inserting their own sperm when carrying out fertility treatments. Most instances of fertility fraud happened between the late 1970s and 1990. This was the period when inseminations became more common, but before at-home DNA testing was on the horizon. Some unscrupulous fertility doctors thought that they could get away with it without being caught. That is why most child victims who discover fertility fraud are 30 years of age or older today.

The U.S. fertility industry has fewer regulations than barber shops or nail salons. Without common-sense regulation, the “Wild West” nature of the multibillion-dollar fertility industry leaves the door open for instances of fertility fraud and other fertility clinic disasters, like those recently experienced in Cleveland and San Francisco.  Doctors who inserted their own sperm into their patients—without their consent—violated their patients. And they violated the law. Patients can file civil lawsuits against their physicians for this misconduct. Some states have criminalized the act of a doctor using his own sperm to impregnate his patients without their explicit consent. But there is no federal law that prohibits fertility fraud.

In August 2019, Peiffer Wolf published The Fertility Center Regulation Crisis in the U.S., a report calling on Congress to impose a system of tight and highly transparent IVF clinic oversight. In addition to identifying several glaring weaknesses and the general lack of regulatory oversight of the IVF/fertility centers in the U.S., the Peiffer Wolf report identified the much tougher government standards in the United Kingdom as an excellent model for this nation.