A fertility doctor allegedly used his own sperm to help parents fall pregnant, and years on his offspring found out.
Maia Simmons and her sister Tahnee Scott have been left disturbed by the discovery, discussing the experience in a new Flash News program The Truth About My Conception.
The girls' dad John Emmons suffered from testicular cancer, meaning that he and his wife Cheryl Emmons had difficulty conceiving.
In both 1980 and 1985, they turned to Dr Paul Jones at the Women’s Health Care of Western Colorado clinic for help, where the doctor allegedly used his own sperm to inseminate Cheryl without her consent.
The two sisters had their world's turned upside down on New Year's Eve 2018 when a half-sibling contacted Maia on Ancestry.com.
The message read: "It looks like we're close matches, so I'm assuming we're half-siblings.
"My father was a sperm donor in Grand Junction, Colorado. I've found three more half-sisters and a half-brother who's [sic] parents also used the donor at the same clinic."
The sisters now believe they have tracked down 12 other half-siblings using genetic testing websites.
Maia said in the program: "I’m angry at him. I’m hurt. I want to ask him why.
"It definitely messes with your head, you question your genetic identity, who you are as a person, what you fought for, in my case, 38 years of who you are and where you came from, is totally changed in an instant."
Tahnee said: "It’s hard for me to think that it was anything good.
"There were so many other options. That didn’t have to be him.
"To know that I came into the world like that, with him taking advantage of my mother and her desire to have a family. It’s gross."
Dr Jones gave up his medical license in 2019 after his supposed children came forward.
At the time of the initial allegations he told KUSA-TV: "I don’t deny it. I don’t admit it."
The Truth About My Conception explores other such cases and calls for greater regulation in the fertility industry in the US.
Eve Wiley, who also appears on the program and was similarly conceived, said: "How can we have a $24 billion industry that allows for things like this to happen?
"No one talks about it, and there’s no punishment, there’s no accountability."
Eve successfully lobbied for a new law in Texas, criminalising fertility fraud as a sexual offence.
Only Colorado, California, Indiana and Florida have similar laws, and no federal law in the US punishes doctors for using their own sperm without consent.
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