Sperm - Once Given - Is Legally a Gift

An Illinois woman was sued by her former lover for two things:

1. The fraudulent theft of her lover's sperm; and
2. Emotional distress as the result of the pregnancy accomplished by using that sperm to impregnate herself without the sperm creator's knowledge or complicity.

An Illinois Appellate Court has ruled that the creator of the sperm has standing to sue for the emotional distress but alas, not for fraudulent sperm theft.

So, gentle readers, understand that one cannot do takebacks of sperm; sperm is - legally speaking - a gift. I've always intuited that might be the case.

The female defendant's second mistake was to have sued the plaintiff for paternity. She won, and the male was ordered to pay $800 a month in child support. Peeved, he sued back as outlined above.

The Appellate Court said, "She asserts that when plaintiff 'delivered' his sperm, it was a gift -- an absolute and irrevocable transfer of title to property from a donor to a donee. There was no agreement that the original deposit would be returned upon request."

Guessing you're dying to know, the sperm was "delivered" orally.

Golly neds, I love the law.