Doctor Admits He Used Own Sperm to Inseminate Patients

Cecil Jacobson, the infertility doctor being tried on 52 counts of fraud and perjury, acknowledged under oath Wednesday that he sometimes used his own sperm for artificial insemination, but he insisted there was nothing wrong with it.

“It is my firm testimony that I did not lie” to patients about sperm donors’ identities, Jacobson said during his second day on the witness stand. “I was never that frequently used as a donor,” he said.

The defense rested its case after Jacobson’s testimony.

Under cross-examination by prosecutor Randy Bellows, Jacobson said he did not commit perjury in a 1989 sworn statement in which he denied donating his own semen.

“That was done to protect the anonymity of my patients,” the doctor said. “That was a correct, truthful answer at that time.”

Prosecutors have said Jacobson fathered perhaps 75 of his patients’ children. They have submitted genetic test reports in 15 cases.

Jacobson said he began donating sperm to his patients at George Washington University Hospital when a donor did not show up and the patient was ready for insemination.

He said he began donating more frequently after he moved his practice to suburban Vienna, Va., and had trouble finding enough donors.

Defense attorney James Tate asked him whether there was anything wrong with the practice. Jacobson said: “Absolutely not, or I would not have done it.”