Court: Man can sue over 'surprise' pregnancy

Chicago Sun-TimesCourt: Man can sue over 'surprise' pregnancy
February 25, 2005
BY ABDON M. PALLASCH Legal Affairs Reporter
Fef a woman performs oral sex on a man, leaves the room, secretly uses that sperm to impregnate herself, then sues the man for child support, is that "extreme and outrageous" conduct?

Yes it is, the Illinois Appellate Court ruled this week.

The justices said Chicago doctor Richard Phillips can try to convince a jury that his ex-fiancee pulled that trick on him, causing him emotional distress.

The ex-fiancee, Sharon Irons, also a doctor, says Phillips got her pregnant the old-fashioned way -- sexual intercourse -- and concocted the oral sex story as a novel excuse to get out of paying child support for their 5-year-old daughter.
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The panel, however, tossed the other two counts in Phillips' suit, including the one for conversion because they could not accept that Irons "stole" Phillips' sperm.

"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," Hartman wrote. "There was no agreement the original deposit would be returned upon request."