Cecil Jacobson 1021619 225766697 2008-07-15T08:47:49Z 125.238.84.25 '''Cecil Byran Jacobson''' (born [[October 2]], [[1936]] in [[Salt Lake City, Utah]]) was an [[United States|American]] [[fertility]] doctor who used his own [[spermatozoon|sperm]] to impregnate his patients, without informing them. Cecil has obtained and is also known by his notorious nickname 'The Sperminator'. ==Baboon impregnation== In the 1960s, Jacobson, who was a researcher and Chief of the Reproductive Genoetics Unit at [[George Washington University]] Medical School, claimed that he had [[Fertilisation|impregnated]] a male [[baboon]]; he had supposedly planted a fertilized egg from a female baboon into the male's abdominal cavity. He claimed that he had terminated the pregnancy after four months. He never published his results in scientific publications; rather, he just talked about them {{Fact|date=February 2007}}. ==False pregnancies== In the 1980s, Jacobson operated reproductive genetics center in [[Fairfax County, Virginia]]. He specialized in treating women who had difficulty getting pregnant, or problems carrying a pregnancy to term. One form of treatment was to inject patients, before and after conception, with the hormone [[Human chorionic gonadotropin| hCG]]. Patients who had been unable to conceive with other treatment reported success under Jacobson's care. The pregnancies progressed normally through the early stages: standard pregnancy tests were positive and patients' bodies began to undergo the normal changes. Jacobson performed [[Medical ultrasonography| ultrasound exams]], identifying a fetus in the grainy image. Invariably, around the third month, Jacobson would report that the fetus had died. In fact, these patients were never pregnant. The bodily changes were a reaction to the hCG, a [[hormone]] normally released during pregnancy. The pregnancy tests were [[false positive| false positives]], inevitable because the tests determined pregnancy by the presence of hCG. (Later, during Jacobson's criminal trial, experts examined the ultrasound photographs, and reported that the purported "fetuses" were actually fecal matter.) Nevertheless, other patients were successful in becoming pregnant and having children. While some patients were uncomfortable with Jacobson's manner, and began to distrust him, other patients gave him credit for successful treatment. He had a loyal following. ==Babymaking== In 1989, suspicious former patients tipped off a local television station, which investigated and reported on the false pregnancies. Jacobson was sued by numerous patients. Federal prosecutors charged Jacobson with perjury (for false testimony during the civil proceedings) and mail and wire fraud (for the use of the mails and the telephone system as part of his fraudulent practice). During the course of the criminal investigation, another type of fraud came to light. For a variety of reasons, some patients had arranged to be [[artificial insemination| artificially inseminated]] with sperm provided by screened, anonymous donors arranged by Jacobson. In order to preserve the anonymity of the donors, Jacobson explained, he identified them in records using code numbers; only Jacobson was to know their true identities. Investigators found no evidence that any donor program actually existed. Some of Jacobson's patients who had conceived through donor insemination agreed to genetic testing. At least seven instances were identified in which Jacobson was the biological father of the patients' children, including one patient who was supposed to have been inseminated with sperm provided by her husband. ==Aftermath== ===Defense=== Jacobson vigorously denied wrongdoing. He offered these explanations: With regard to the "false pregnancy" cases, he had believed that the women had actually been pregnant, and continued to maintain that some of them really were pregnant. He was well aware that injected hCG could trigger a false positive on a pregnancy test, but thought that the dosages he administered were too low to have that effect. If he misread the ultrasound results, that was honest error. As for the donor insemination, Jacobson maintained that he had in fact relied on anonymous donors as claimed. He acknowledged using his own sperm on some occasions, when donors failed to show up when needed, and a patient was about to miss a window of opportunity to be become pregnant. He could not account for the incident in which his own sperm was used in place of the patient's husband's, other than to suggest cross-contamination in the laboratory. ===Sentence=== In 1992, Jacobson was convicted of 52 counts of [[mail fraud]], [[wire fraud]] and [[perjury]]. He was sentenced to five years in prison and had his medical license revoked. He was released, and he now lives in [[Provo, Utah]], where he is involved in [[agricultural research]]. ===Awards=== He was awarded the [[Ig Nobel Prize]] for [[Biology]] in 1992. His nicknames are "The Sperminator" and "The Babymaker". == Book about Jacobson case == * Babymaker: Fertility, Fraud and the Fall of Doctor Cecil Jacobson (1993) ISBN 0-553-56162-6 ==References== *[http://www.museumofhoaxes.com/birth/birth.html Museum of Hoaxes] New York Times, Sept. 8, 1994 [http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?sec=health&res=9F0CEFDF1F3CF93BA3575AC0A965958260 "CONVICTION UPHELD IN FERTILITY CASE"] ==External links== * [http://www.law.emory.edu/4circuit/feb95/931986.p.html '''''UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE FOURTH CIRCUIT No. 93-1986''''' ST. PAUL FIRE & MARINE INSURANCE COMPANY, Plaintiff- Appellant, v. CECIL B. JACOBSON, JR.; REPRODUCTIVE GENETICS CENTER] * [http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0109193/ The Babymaker: The Dr. Cecil Jacobson Story (1994)] * [http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0498842/ The Sperminator (2005)] * [http://snltranscripts.jt.org/91/91okids.phtml Transcript of a ''Saturday Night Live'' skit "My 75 Kids"] {{DEFAULTSORT:Jacobson, Cecil}} [[Category:American perjurors]] [[Category:American physicians]] [[Category:Ig Nobel Prize winners]] [[Category:American fraudsters]] [[Category:1936 births]] [[Category:Living people]] [[Category:Sperm donors]] [[nl:Cecil Jacobson]]