Japanese woman sues sperm donor after lying about nationality and education. Married woman in her 30’s gives baby away for adoption after ‘betrayal.’
A Japanese woman in her 30’s has put up her baby for adoption after she discovered the sperm donor she slept with ten times to get pregnant had lied about his nationality and educational background in order to have sex with her.
The woman, identified as a married 30-year-old from Tokyo, has sued the sperm donor after finding out he was Chinese, not Japanese, had not graduated from elite college, Kyoto University, and was married, not single as he claimed, according to Tokyo Shimbun.
She and her husband, who already have one child, found the man on social media in 2019 after deciding to have a child by donor because her partner carried a hereditary condition that could be passed to his offspring.
She had sex with the donor, who was in his 20s, ten times before falling pregnant in June 2019 but months later, when it was too late for an abortion, the couple discovered the man had lied to them.
The child was handed to a Tokyo child care facility and put up for adoption after birth while the couple filed a lawsuit seeking for 330 million yen ($2.86 million) in damages from the donor for fraud and emotional distress.
At what price the perfect baby?
The woman’s lawyer on Tuesday said she suffered from sleeping disorders and was physically and emotionally traumatised by the case – especially because of the backlash generated by her decision to give up the child.
Mizuho Sasaki, a child welfare worker in Japan, branded the woman ‘shallow’ for ‘treat[ing] the child like an object’ according to Vice.
He said: ‘I think it’s better to leave the kid with someone who can be a good foster parent.’
The woman said she had filed a lawsuit against the man last month because she wanted to stop him potentially targeting other people.
Sperm donations in Japan are virtually unregulated because artificial insemination clinics are rare and only open to married women, excluding single women and LGTBQ+ people.
With only one commercial sperm bank, which was opened in June, and 12 hospitals across Japan offering such fertility treatment, many people have resorted to finding sperm donors on social media.
The underground network often offers cheap, or free, options for sperm donation, despite coming with added health and legal risks.
