Decades after insemination, tests revealed that the doctor was the father: “This is a serious violation”

When the results of her daughter’s genetic genealogy test arrived last year, Bianca Voss wasn’t expecting to recognize her biological father’s name. After all, was conceived from an anonymous sperm donor in a clinic almost 40 years earlier.

But when you looked at the results, the name was all too familiar: Martin D. Greenberg.

Greenberg it was the same fertility doctor who inseminated her in 1983, the same doctor who told him he would be in charge of obtaining the anonymous donor.

Now, Voss, 75, accuses Greenberg of “medical rape” for allegedly intentionally making her pregnant without her permission with her own sperm., according to a federal lawsuit filed Tuesday.

“Dr Greenberg raped Bianca,” her lawyer, Adam Wolf, told the The Washington Post. “He thought he could insert his own sperm into his patient’s body by cheating on her and without her consent. It’s not only disgusting and unethical, but it’s a serious violation of Bianca’s bodily autonomy. “

She added: “She feels raped by this man. She trusted him as her doctor and now she wonders who else she can trust. “

Greenberg did not immediately respond to a message from The post office early Wednesday.

Voss is not the first to say that a fertility doctor used his own sperm to conceive a child. During the last years, the growth of genetic genealogy services has led many parents and children to discover that they have been misled by doctors. A doctor in Indiana is accused of fathering up to 50 children with his own sperm, while another obstetrician in Las Vegas is linked with 26 similar cases. The findings have prompted some to push for tighter regulations and tougher penalties when things go wrong.

Voss, who now lives in New Jersey, first visited Greenberg’s Manhattan office in 1983 to request fertility services because his partner, who has since died, was unable to conceive due to a vasectomy. . She says the OB / GYN assured her that he would deal with finding an anonymous donor through a sperm bank once she paid a check for $ 100.

Voss’s procedure was successful and she gave birth to their daughter, Roberta Voss, the following year.

When Bianca Voss raised her daughter, she believed for years that she had never met her biological father.

Then in September 2020, Roberta Voss, seeking to learn more about her family history, did a DNA test at home. When the results arrived they showed Greenberg was his father.

“It was devastating when Roberta came to me with the news,” Bianca Voss said at a virtual press conference Tuesday, where she called Greenberg a “doctor rapist.” “I am angry because I was raped this way… It all changed my life and that of my family. The damage it does and the emotional scars it creates for me and them, I fear, will have lasting effects. “

The family later learned that Greenberg was banned from performing surgery in New York City in April 2010, following an investigation that found him “dishonorable, unethical and unprofessional conduct. “. The public records do not indicate what the conduct consists of.

After doing further research on social media, Roberta Voss reached out to Greenberg, who now lives in Florida and does not practice medicine. She was hoping to learn more about her medical history as her son had passed away young.

However, Greenberg never replied to his messages, according to the lawsuit.

“The worst part is that when I saw the doctor’s face, I recognized myself”said Roberta Voss, now 37. “It’s horrible looking at me in the mirror and seeing the person who raped my mother. I see her face every time I look at myself in the mirror. “

On Tuesday, Bianca Voss filed a federal lawsuit in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York for damages and a copy of Greenberg’s medical records.

Bianca Voss said she hoped the lawsuit might prompt other women inseminated by Greenberg to take their own DNA tests.

“He wants to know if there are any other victims of Dr Greenberg and expose this horrific pattern that we have discovered of doctors who deceptively use their own sperm in their patients,” Wolf said. The post office.

Court records did not immediately list a lawyer representing Greenberg until early Wednesday morning.

KEEP READING: