A couple now living in Florida are alleging that a Vermont doctor used his own sperm for an artificial insemination more than 40 years ago at what is now Central Vermont Medical Center in Berlin.

Cheryl and Peter Rousseau are suing the hospital and the doctor, John Boyd Coates, in federal court on nine counts, including fraud, medical negligence and battery.

When the procedure was done, Cheryl Rousseau believed the sperm was from an unnamed medical student who resembled her husband, according to court documents. She gave birth to a daughter, now known as Barbara Mary Frances Gordon, on Dec. 27, 1977. Gordon lives out of state.

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The couple went to Coates, an obstetrician/gynecologist, because they both had children from earlier marriages and decided they would like to have a child together, according to court documents. Peter Rousseau, however, had undergone a vasectomy.

Coates "personally delivered" Cheryl Rousseau's baby, according to court documents, and "to this day," denies he used his own sperm to inseminate Rousseau.

Coates' attorney, Peter Joslin, said in an email Monday that the charges "lack merit," and that he will ask for the case to be dismissed.

'A shock and a challenge'

Burlington attorney Jerry O'Neill, who is representing the Rousseaus, said Monday that when the couple learned of the alleged medical malpractice it was a "shock and a challenge to their relationship just generally."

"Once the events have taken place, the only thing that remains is what our civil courts are about, money damages," O'Neill said. "You can't fix the emotional distress."

O'Neill declined to say how much the couple is suing for, saying that will be determined by the evidence.

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Coates, reached by telephone, declined to comment. Central Vermont Medical Center did not respond to a call for comment on Monday.

Gordon reached out to Coates

Gordon, 41, submitted her DNA to both Ancestry.com and 23andMe.com in an effort to learn more about her genetic background. O'Neill said she has children and thought more information about her father would be helpful for her own and her children's health care.

Gordon worked with a trained geneticist, who determined that her father is "almost certainly" Coates.

Gordon wrote to Coates in October, O'Neill said, laying out the genetic analysis she had made, which showed Coates was the only male child of both the lineages she had traced, and the only person other than Coates who could be her father would be Coates' full-blooded brother.

Gordon asked Coates for his help finding her birth father, but he did not respond, according to O'Neill. O'Neill said Gordon next reached out to Coates' children, but they didn't respond either.

Paternity test is next step

O'Neill said he will get a court order to obtain a sample of Coates' DNA to perform a paternity test.

"We expect it will show he's her genetic father," O'Neill said. "We won't know categorically until testing is done. If he admits it, we can take his deposition."

Neither Coates nor Central Vermont Medical Center have yet submitted answers to O'Neill's complaint, which was filed on Dec. 4. O'Neill said that in discussions with the hospital, its position has been that Coates was not employed by the hospital and therefore the hospital should not be named in the complaint.

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"We say he had privileges there, the procedure was done there and that he was their agent they had a duty to supervise," O'Neill said.

O'Neill declined to speculate on what Coates' motive might have been to allegedly use his own sperm to inseminate Rousseau. He said he expects the case to take about a year to be resolved.

Contact Dan D’Ambrosio at 660-1841 or ddambrosio@freepressmedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @DanDambrosioVT.