Semen Is a Gift, Not a Loan

By Sam Bakken in News on Feb 25, 2005 5:21AM

Check out this contender for hottest AP lead of the year. "A man who says his former lover deceived him by getting pregnant using semen obtained through oral sex can sue for emotional distress - but not theft, an appeals court has ruled." So dirty! Normally we have to buy Penthouse Letters to get our daily erotic-lit fix, but today it came free over the wire.

The man is Chicago physician Richard Phillips. The woman is Dr. Sharon Irons from Olympia Fields (allegedly not a swallower). Phillips filed suit against Irons, after she slapped him with a paternity suit two years after their affair ended, claiming she was pregnant from some of his semen she had kept without his knowledge. He also claimed that her suit made him lose sleep and his appetite. A DNA test showed that Phillips was the father of the child in question. Phillips claims he never had intercourse with Irons, but did engage in oral sex three times. Irons maintains that they had the baby together through intercourse. Phillips' suit was originally dismissed by the Cook County Court in 2003, but the Illinois Appeals Court's decision that Phillips can sue for emotional distress will send it back.

Whoever wrote the decision is quite a comic. Here's one gem from the decision:

"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."

If Phillips' accusations are true, his kid is going to get quite a "Where do babies come from?" speech.