Cecil Jacobson

Cecil Jacobson
Born	October 2, 1936(1936-10-02) Salt Lake City, Utah, USA
Occupation	Physician and researcher
Known for	Using his own sperm to impregnate his patients
Religion	Mormons
Criminal charge	mail fraud, wire fraud and perjury
Criminal penalty	5-years jail time and $116,805 in fines
Awards	Ig Nobel Prize in Biology (1992)

Cecil Byran Jacobson (born October 2, 1936 in Salt Lake City, Utah) is a former fertility doctor who used his own sperm to impregnate his patients, without informing them.

Baboon impregnation

Main article: Male pregnancy#Male pregnancy by ectopic implantation

In the 1960s, Jacobson, who was a researcher and Chief of the Reproductive Genetics Unit at George Washington University Medical School, claimed that he had 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.^[1][2]

False pregnancies

In the 1980s, Jacobson operated a 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 hCG (commonly used as a parenteral fertility medication). Patients who had been unable to conceive with other treatments 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 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 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 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. DNA tests linked Jacobson to at least 15 such children, and it has been suspected that he fathered as many as 75 children by impregnating patients with his own sperm.^[3]

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 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.

In the Media

• A book was written about the case, Babymaker: Fertility, Fraud and the Fall of Doctor Cecil Jacobson (1993) ISBN 0-553-56162-6

• The case formed the basis of a Season 5 episode of Law & Order Seed.

References

1. ^ Dick Teresi (1994-11-27). "How To Get A Man Pregnant". The New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/1994/11/27/magazine/how-to-get-a-man-pregnant.html. 
2. ^ William Leith (2008-04-10). "Pregnant men: hard to stomach?". Telegraph. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/men_shealth/3354220/Pregnant-men-hard-to-stomach.html. 
3. ^ "Cecil+Jacobson". http://www.nytimes.com/1992/03/05/us/doctor-is-found-guilty-in-fertility-case.html. 

• Museum of Hoaxes

New York Times, Sept. 8, 1994 "CONVICTION UPHELD IN FERTILITY CASE"

External links

• 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
• The Babymaker: The Dr. Cecil Jacobson Story (1994)
• The Sperminator (2005)
• Transcript of a Saturday Night Live skit "My 75 Kids"

Persondata
Name	Jacobson, Cecil
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	October 2, 1936
Place of birth	Salt Lake City, Utah, USA
Date of death
Place of death