Nine more people whose parents went to an Ottawa fertility doctor have joined a class-action lawsuit accusing him of using his own sperm to inseminate clients, joining two other women who first made the claim in 2016.
Dr. Norman Barwin is alleged to have used his own sperm without the knowledge or consent of the people who came to him for insemination treatments, according to a statement of claim filed in the fall of 2016 by Ottawa law firm Nelligan O’Brien Payne.
The class action, which has yet to be certified by a judge, initially claimed Barwin had inseminated two women, but has been amended to include more complainants, according to a news release from the law firm issued Thursday.
Peter Cronyn, one of the lawyers representing the plaintiffs, said the lawsuit also includes people who have discovered the sperm used in the conception of their child did not come from the intended father or donor.
“There’s an immense breach of trust,” Cronyn said. “Women that we’ve talked to who went to see him speak of terms like ‘violation.'”
None of the allegations against Barwin, who stopped practising in 2012 and resigned from the Order of Canada in 2014, have been tested in court.

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