Shock over mentally ill sperm donor revelation
British families are in shock after learning a US sperm donor they used to father their children was a criminal with a history of mental illness.
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British families are in shock after learning a US sperm donor they used to father their children was a criminal with a history of mental illness.
Chris Aggeles, 39, had claimed he had a high IQ of 160 and a master’s degree in artificial intelligence.
But instead he has served time in prison and his career amounted to working in a steak house and pizza restaurant.
He also has schizophrenia which means the children of the families who used his sperm are at risk of the condition, according to a lawsuit filed in the US.
Aggeles is said to have fathered 36 children in North America and Britain - 19 boys and 17 girls.
In total, 26 families are affected by his alleged deception, though it is not clear how many are from the UK.
His real identity was revealed after one of the families was mistakenly sent an email by Xytex, an Atlanta-based sperm bank they had used.
They realised donor 9623 was not the highly intelligent, internationally-acclaimed drummer his profile had suggested.
Aggeles did not have a master’s degree in artificial intelligence and was not working on a PhD in neuroscience as he had claimed, the lawsuit alleges.
He also said he could speak five languages, that he read four or five books a month, and that he donated his sperm to “give parents one of the greatest gifts in the world”.
Angie Collins, a Canadian mother whose eight-year-old son was conceived using Aggeles’ sperm, said in legal papers that the donor was “schizophrenic, which is genetic and hereditary, thereby risking all of said donor’s offspring”.
She wrote that after carrying out research she learned that Aggeles had “dropped out of college and held no degrees whatsoever … had been arrested for burglary and was an ex-felon”.
The lawsuit filed by Miss Collins and her partner, Margaret Hanson, of Port Hope, Ontario, was dismissed in October by a judge in Georgia in the US.
Fulton County Superior Court Judge Robert McBurney said there was no law governing what he called “wrongful birth” claims, but added that there should be a way for them to seek redress.
Teacher Miss Collins, 45, has indicated she intends to file a fresh lawsuit in Canada, which other families will join.
The previous legal claim included allegations of fraud, negligence and breach of warranty.
Miss Collins told the Toronto Star newspaper that her son has not shown any signs of mental illness, but she worried he could “turn on a dime in puberty”.
She said that learning of his father’s identity was “a dream turned nightmare in an instant... I felt like I was duped by Xytex and I failed my son for having chosen Xytex”.
Miss Collins added that she had to have a very difficult conversation with her son.
“I told him, ‘The man who helped create you has something wrong with his brain. He shouldn’t have been donating and the company shouldn’t have been promoting him. We want to make sure that all you kids are safe in the future so we’re suing’... he did ask, ‘So Mommy, am I okay?’”
Aggeles appears to have graduated from the University of Georgia last year with a bachelor’s degree in cognitive science - 20 years after he first started at the college.
A video on YouTube appears to show him playing drums with a rock band in Los Angeles called American Mannequins.
Kevin O’Brien, Xytex president, said in an open letter that the company is upfront about not checking up on donors.
“He [Aggeles] reported a good health history and stated in his application that he had no physical or medical impairments,” Mr O’Brien said.
“This information was passed on to the couple, who were clearly informed the representations were reported by the donor and were not verified by Xytex.”
Aggeles was not available for comment.
Daily Mail