KYOTO (TR) – A Kyoto City man has filed a lawsuit against a local fertility clinic, seeking 11 million yen in damages after his estranged wife forged his signature to undergo in vitro fertilization using another man’s sperm, reports the Yomiuri Shimbun (June 3).
According to the petition filed with the Kyoto District Court, the couple initially contracted the clinic in January 2020 to freeze embryos in hopes of having a second child. However, the couple separated in January 2022 and began divorce discussions.
During this separation, the wife forged her husband’s signature on a consent form and had a frozen embryo transferred to her uterus. When the procedure failed to result in a pregnancy, she took the deception a step further. The woman forged an additional consent form and provided the clinic with a third party’s sperm, falsely claiming it belonged to her husband.
Using the donor sperm, she successfully became pregnant and gave birth to a child in August 2023.
Criminal complaint
The deception came to light when the wife confessed to the pregnancy while the couple was still negotiating their divorce. The husband subsequently filed a criminal complaint against her. In April of last year, the wife was convicted of forging and utilizing a private document, receiving an 18-month prison sentence suspended for three years.
Now, the man is taking the clinic to court. In his lawsuit, he argues that the hospital’s confirmation process was severely lacking. He claims that if the clinic had simply required a face-to-face confirmation, the forged documents and the true origin of the sperm would have been discovered. He alleges the clinic’s negligence violated his right to self-determination regarding reproduction.
The medical corporation operating the clinic has asked the court to dismiss the 11-million-yen claim. In its defense, the hospital argues that there are no established rules requiring in-person or telephone verification of a spouse’s consent.
“There were no circumstances to make us suspect that the sperm did not belong to the husband or that he had not consented to the treatment,” the clinic stated, adding that it will prove the appropriateness of its actions during the trial.
Divorce final
The couple finalized their divorce last year, and the ex-wife is currently raising the second child. In a twist, despite having zero biological connection to the baby, the man has chosen to leave the child on his family register and continues to pay child support out of concern for the infant’s welfare.
“Infertility treatment involves the heavy responsibility of creating life. Hospitals should be much more careful with their confirmations,” the man told reporters.
The case exposes a significant loophole in Japan’s fertility treatment regulations. While the Japan Society of Obstetrics and Gynecology requires clinics to obtain written consent from couples prior to treatment, the specific methods of identity verification are left entirely up to individual medical facilities.
Medical experts note that while clinics could implement strict handwriting analysis or mandatory in-person meetings, doing so would significantly raise the burden on both hospitals and legitimate patients.
The first oral argument in the lawsuit was held on Wednesday. After the court adjourned, the man told reporters, “Infertility treatment is an important decision that concerns the birth of a life. If they had confirmed consent not only with the wife but also with the husband, this could have been prevented.”
The man’s lawyer said, “The hospital had heard from the wife that they were in divorce mediation, so they should have had doubts about the husband’s consent. They should have confirmed it with the husband.”
