19-02-2025
Lawsuit claims a former UI OB-GYN used his own sperm to impregnate a woman in the 1950s
A former University of Iowa fertility doctor is accused of using his own sperm to allegedly twice impregnate a patient more than 65 years ago though the court argues that an actual timeline is hazy because the family hasn't provided proof of the insemination agreement.
The Iowa Supreme Court will decide whether the malpractice lawsuit filed more than 60 years after the late John H. Randall died in 1959, can proceed.
The lawsuit accuses Randall of using his own sperm to impregnate Donna Miller two different times during fertility treatments in the 1950s. Miller, who died in 2018, later gave birth to three children between 1954 and 1958: Bert Jay, Nancy, and Randy.
Iowa implemented the Fraud in Assisted Reproduction Act in 2022, allowing lawsuits for reproductive-related violations, like unknowingly being impregnated by someone else's sperm. The family argues that this law allows them to sue retroactively. The state disagreed, arguing that the Fraud in Assisted Reproduction Act was established 70 years after Miller's alleged fertility treatments and cannot be applied retroactively.
The Daily Iowan first reported that Nancy and Bert Jay Miller, who say their biological father is John H. Randall, took their malpractice lawsuit to the Iowa Supreme Court, which heard oral arguments on Feb. 11.
The Iowa Supreme Court stated that it is unclear whether Donna Miller knew the origins of the artificial insemination nor did her children determine what she "consented to" with Dr. Randall. The court also ruled that it is unclear what specific fertility issue the Millers had, what type of treatment Donna Miller received, or when specifically the family sought fertility treatment.
Randall was the head of the University of Iowa's Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology for seven years, from April 1952 until his death from a stroke in 1959, at what was then known as the University Hospitals State University of Iowa.
Randall received his M.D. from the University of Iowa in 1928, according to his front-page obituary in the April 20, 1959 Iowa City Press-Citizen. He appears in the Press-Citizen across several decades, speaking about the OB-GYN field and cancer in women.
Bert and Donna Miller allegedly had trouble conceiving a child and visited Randall for fertility assistance in the 1950s, though the exact years and dates have not been made public.
The fertility treatments likely utilized artificial insemination, a process where a semen sample is "washed" to separate sperm from seminal fluid and inserted into a woman's body, according to the Cleveland Clinic. It differs from in-vitro fertilization, where the sperm and egg are combined outside of the body.
The Millers produced three babies during the 50s: one in 1954 (Nancy Miller), another in 1956 (Bert Jay Miller), and a third in 1958. The third child, named Randy Miller in the lawsuit, was found to be the biological son of the senior Bert Miller.
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In 2016, one of the Miller's sons, Bert Jay, who lives in Firestone, Colorado, was "curious about his heritage and extended family," and submitted a DNA test roughly 60 years after he was born to according to a Johnson County District Court ruling.
The results determined that Randall was "likely" Bert Jay's father.
He informed his siblings of the news, and Nancy Miller, who lives in Coralville, quickly took an test of her own.
"Her results matched Bert Jay's," the court wrote.
Bert Jay Miller then asked a cousin on his father's side to take a DNA test and the results indicated that there was no biological relation between the two.
Donna Miller did tell her kids about Randall's fertility treatment but never indicated that anyone other than the elder Bert was their biological father. Donna died in 2018, eight years after her husband.
The two Miller children sprang into action and initially filed a malpractice lawsuit in Johnson County in 2022. It was later dismissed in January 2023 after the court found that the statute of limitations had passed.
Nancy and Bert Miller again filed a malpractice lawsuit against the State of Iowa in 2024 claiming that they were "conceived through assisted reproduction in violation of Iowa Code 714I.3 (prohibited practices and acts)." The two Miller children are each seeking $200,000 in statutory damages in addition to unspecified compensatory damages, prompting the recent appeal to the Iowa Supreme Court. They argued that the 2022 Fraud in Assisted Reproduction Act (FARA) applies to Randall's alleged actions in the 1950s.
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In May 2024, District Court Judge Kevin McKeever approved a state motion to dismiss the case, ruling that the act does not apply retroactively and writing that FARA "contains no express language indicating legislative intent for retrospective application." The court ruled that the alleged conduct happened more than 70 years before the act was established.
The court noted that the Miller's lawsuit does not specify what their mother, Donna Miller "understood about the identity of the donor whose sperm was used in the procedure," suggesting that they do not know if it was an anonymous donor. The court also said that the lawsuit does not specify what Donna Miller "consented to" in writing.
The Miller children decided to appeal the decision with the Iowa Supreme Court.
In briefs filed with the court, attorneys for the family argue that the Johnson County district court misinterpreted the second part of a three-prong legal test known as the Hedlund test, which is used by courts to assess whether laws should be applied retroactively.
FARA places no statute of limitations on any actions brought under the law. The act also provides leeway for claims brought even if parents are "deceased or otherwise unable to bring such cause of action," the brief said.
Nancy and Bert Jay Miller's brief argued their claims are how the legislature intended the law to be applied. A local lawyer suggested that the rise of online DNA testing databases can often inspire cases like the Miller's.
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"This case, and its companion cases, demonstrates that this type of tortious conduct usually comes to light through direct-to-consumer genetic testing many years (and sometimes many decades) after the acts at issue," Iowa City-based attorney Michael Biderman wrote. "A consequence of finding that the statute only has prospective application is that it renders it potentially toothless for generations of victims of this type of conduct."
The brief asks the court to return the case to the lower court for further discovery and pre-trial proceedings.
An attorney for the family did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
In a reply, the state's argument echoes Judge McKeever's in a title to one of the subsections: "The Act (FARA) does not apply retrospectively because it does not expressly say so."
The state argues that the legislature did not intend for the law to be applied retrospectively because "it contains no express language indicating legislative intent for retrospective application."
The state points to a similar Illinois law, which outright says: "(T)his Act shall be retroactive and apply to any treatment by a health care provider occurring prior to the effective date of this Act." Iowa's 2022 FARA law makes no such distinction.
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The absence of a statute of limitations is not an indication of retrospective action, the state argued, because it would apply to both the civil and criminal aspects of the law. Retrospective criminal charges through the FARA would violate the "ex post facto clause of the Iowa Constitution," the state said, "creating criminal punishments for actions that were not criminalized before the law was passed."
The state asked that the district court's dismissal be upheld.
A ruling is expected by the end of June when the Iowa Supreme Court's term comes to a close.
Ryan Hansen covers local government and crime for the Press-Citizen. He can be reached at rhansen@ or on X, formerly known as Twitter, @ryanhansen01.
This article originally appeared on Iowa City Press-Citizen: Ex-UI doctor allegedly used own sperm for patient fertility treatment
