He’s also a liar, cheat and fraud — but none of that ever came up. Should it matter?

Human error, a disciplinary panel of the Ontario College of Physicians and Surgeons was told last week before finding Dr. Bernard Norman Barwin guilty on one of the three charges brought against him.

Barwin — described as compassionate, a leading advocate of women’s reproductive rights, even revered as a “baby God” by patients who owe their miracle children to the Ottawa gynecologist — was formally reprimanded and had his licence suspended for two months.

At least four of those babies aren’t the biological result of their fathers or the sperm donor designated by their mothers. Because of mistakes at Barwin’s clinic — experts dispatched to review procedures at the facility could isolate no “evident” reasons for the mix-up — those children will never know the male side of their parentage, thus left forever ignorant of crucial medical history details.

A decade ago, Barwin told a reporter that inseminating a patient with the wrong sperm was his “worst nightmare.” It came true, although that nightmare is far more haunting for the families living with the consequences of his mistakes.

Barwin was on the College’s radar since the mid-’90s when a lesbian couple brought suit against the doctor for the same reason. That incident was designated a “prior error” in the agreed statement of facts presented to the panel Thursday. On that occasion, Barwin was “notified of this error by the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario and states that he took some steps to endeavour to ensure that no such errors would occur in his practice in the future.”

In fact, two similar blunders occurred subsequently and another, from 1985, was documented at the hearing.

Yet, collectively, these chronic lapses were deemed insufficient to find 73-year-old Barwin guilty on the other two charges: disgraceful, dishonourable or unprofessional conduct; and incompetence. He was reprimanded only for failing to maintain the standard of practice of the profession. In 60 days, Barwin can resume his practice, though he shuttered the insemination service a year ago when notice of the hearing was given.

Much was made of the physician’s fine character, his long-standing advocacy for women’s health and his reputation in the community. Indeed, he’s been tireless as a pro-choice champion, fairy godfather to same-sex couples yearning for children and a pioneer in reconstructive gender surgery for transsexuals. Everyone speaks glowingly of his kindly bedside manner.

In evaluating Barwin’s career and achievements — one-time president of Planned Parenthood, recipient of the Order of Canada in 1997 — these would all be mitigating factors set against the carelessness of his boutique insemination trade, the obvious cross-contamination of samples. Further, as the College’s prosecutor Carolyn Silver noted, there was no precedent in Canada where the facts were similar to this case, which made it difficult to recommend a penalty.

If there were any concerns about Barwin’s character, perhaps an underlying explanation for his again-and-again-and-again negligence, well, the good doctor got the benefit of the doubt from his peers.

What the disciplinary panel didn’t hear, though surely some of it would not be unknown to them:

Barwin left Ottawa General Hospital in 1984 because he was not a certified gynecologist in Canada, despite what it said on his name tag and his prominent posting as director of the High Risk Pregnancy Clinic and co-director of the hospital’s fertility clinic. Born in South Africa and arriving in this country after a decade spent practising in Northern Ireland, Barwin had been hired in 1973 with the understanding he would, within three years, take and pass the gynecology certification exam administered by the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada.

He did take it and failed — more than once.

When he departed Ottawa General to establish his clinic, Barwin was still licensed merely as a general physician, with no gynecological privileges at area hospitals. Questioned long afterwards by the Ottawa Citizen, Barwin at first claimed he left Ottawa General because he wanted “more freedom,” then implied resentment among professional colleagues, and finally asserted he had “nothing to prove” because he’d been certified by the Royal College of Obstetrics and Gynecologists in England. He did indicate embarrassment over the controversy. “I’m not proud of it.”

It’s unclear if Barwin has passed the certification exam since, though he hadn’t as of 2002.

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By that point, Barwin had been engulfed in notoriety of an entirely different nature.

A physical fitness enthusiast, Barwin ran the Boston Marathon in 2000. Though only a novice marathoner, he posted an excellent time of 3:17, 14th-best in his age group of men 60-69. He’d qualified for the lustrous Boston event with a time of less than three hours at the earlier Royal Victoria Marathon in B.C., his first-ever full 42k race.

But, since the Rosie Ruiz scandal in 1980 — she allegedly rode a subway to the finish line, was afterwards disqualified and her first-place medal for women transferred to Jacqueline Gareau — Boston Marathon officials had implemented cheat-checking procedures. This included monitoring by video cameras, running referees and a computer timing system whereby microchips are attached to the shoes of all participants, with electronic sensors hidden under rubber mats recording every runner at five-kilometre intervals.

Something wasn’t right about Barwin, as the Ottawa Citizen’s Glen McGregor detailed in a lengthy investigative article. The reporter quoted from a letter Boston race director Guy Morse sent to Barwin three days after the event: “You failed to appear at multiple checkpoints along the marathon route. Please provide this office with any information that may be helpful to assist in authenticating that you did run the entire marathon course, including type of clothing worn, other visual identification, split times, companion runners, etc.”

Within a month, Barwin was officially disqualified. He would not be allowed to run the Boston Marathon again.

Confronted by the Citizen, Barwin initially acted mystified. “I’m not quite sure now what happened, whether I had a faulty chip or what.” Then he changed his story, admitting he’d dropped out around the 10k point because of an inguinal hernia, jumping back in at the end because he wanted to experience the exhilaration of crossing the finish line with a group of friends. “I thought I’d feel the high of coming in. I got a friend to give me a lift (to the finish),” Barwin told the paper. “I have had a hard time with this. It wasn’t my intent to do this. It was a breaking point, you know.”

Yet a year later, Barwin was caught cheating again at the National Capital Marathon in Ottawa. He finished first in his age group with a time of 3:04. Evidence scrutinized later showed Barwin had failed to complete the second lap of the two-circuit route. The hernia problem had struck once more, he maintained afterward, so he’d pulled out near the midway point of the second lap. “I limped straight off the race. I assumed I wasn’t going to be included in the results.” He had, however, joined the race again one kilometre from the finish line, allegedly to run alongside a training partner. Barwin told the Citizen he’d informed officials that he hadn’t completed the course and asked to be removed from the results, though that couldn’t be confirmed.

“It’s really very embarrassing for me,” said Barwin. “It was quite out of character, I promise you.”

Really? It seems entirely within character, I’d say.

Didn’t mean it . . . never meant to . . . sorry.

Barwin assumed the same benign posture in his terse statement last week to the College panel, with much more at stake than false glory.

“I regret that I’ve caused these patients any difficulties. My interest was always to do the best for them.”

Rosie DiManno usually appears Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday.

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