The University of Utah, which is probing a possible sperm swap at a fertility clinic in Salt Lake City area, on Wednesday announced free paternity testing to the women who underwent artificial insemination at the two fertility clinics that employed the suspected lab worker.
At a news conference on Wednesday, the university also clarified its relationship with the defunct clinic. University’s Community Laboratory shared administrative oversight with Reproductive Medical Technologies Inc where the alleged crime took place.
“This may help in clearing the confusion that why the victim approached both the clinics for the process,” the press release said.
The University came under scanner as it was associated with the clinic. Thomas Lipper, now dead, is accused of illicitly using his own semen to father a 21-year-old Texas woman at a Millcreek fertility clinic. Both the labs employed Lippert despite his conviction for conspiracy in a 1974 kidnapping case.
Meanwhile, the University officials said they have been struggling hard to collect evidences because the alleged crime happened in 1991 and the clinic was shut down in the 1990s and the most troubling thing is that the suspect is dead. The accused died in 1999.
Pamela Branum, the victim, said she along with her husband had approached the lab in the early 1990s for the artificial insemination process after she faced trouble conceiving. In 1991, the women discovered that the biological father of her child was not her husband. She then conducted a genetic testing and then she traced the genetics of her child to a man who was a former employee of the now-defunct lab. Her daughter was born in 1992.