Sperm bank’s mistake raises racial, legal questions

Jennifer Cramblett has sued a Chicago-area sperm bank after she became pregnant with sperm donated by a black man instead of the white man she’d chosen. Jennifer Cramblett has sued a Chicago-area sperm bank after she became pregnant with sperm donated by a black man instead of the white man she’d chosen. Photo: Mark Duncan / Associated Press Photo: Mark Duncan / Associated Press Image 1 of / 3 Caption Close Sperm bank’s mistake raises racial, legal questions 1 / 3 Back to Gallery

What is the price of being forced to raise a brown baby?

It’s an unusual question, arising from an unusual lawsuit prompted by an insemination gone wrong. And it has set off an extraordinary discussion touching on sensitive issues of race, motherhood, sexuality and justice, though the debate begins with one basic premise: You should get what you pay for.

Jennifer Cramblett and her wife, Amanda Zinkon, wanted a white baby. They went to the Midwest Sperm Bank near Chicago and chose blond, blue-eyed donor No. 380, who looked like he could have been related to Zinkon. When Cramblett was five months pregnant, they found out that she had been inseminated by donor No. 330 — a black man.

“The couple did not get what they asked for, which was a particular donor. The company made a mistake, and it should have to pay for that,” says Jessica Barrow, an information technology professional in suburban Detroit.

Barrow is black and lesbian, with a white partner. They considered insemination of the white partner before choosing to adopt. When looking at donors, they wanted sperm from a black donor, to create a baby that would have shared some characteristics with both of them.

“They’re not saying anything racist — they’re not saying, 'We don’t want a black baby,’” Barrow said of Cramblett and Zinkon, who profess their love for their now 2-year-old daughter. “They’re saying, we asked for something, you gave us something different, and now we have to adjust to that.”

That “adjustment” is a major justification for Cramblett’s lawsuit. It cites the stress and anxiety of raising a brown girl in predominantly white Uniontown, Ohio, which Cramblett describes as intolerant. Some of her own family members have unconscious racial biases, the lawsuit says.

That leads some to believe that Cramblett is asking to be paid for the difficulties that many black folks — and white parents of adopted black children — deal with without compensation.

“I don’t think I deserve anything more being the white parent of a black child than any parent of a black child does,” says Rory Mullen, who adopted her daughter.

Strangers have asked her why she didn’t adopt a white baby. One remarked in front of her white then-husband that Mullen must have cheated with a black man.

“It’s hard, but being a parent is hard,” says Mullen, who lives in Southern California.