My Gift From Me To You

*WARNING: someone in this case held a prurient interest in sex IMHO. If this offends you leave now.*

Suggestions to the parties:
1. Dude, get a lawyer and stop representing yourself.
2. This woman has some serious issues. Therapy should be sought.
3. This is not legal advice. I am not your lawyer. I am simply someone with an opinion after reading this totally whacked out story.
4. Hard to think of things like this in legal terms. Do lawyers and judges just shake their heads when they try to translate life events like this into legalese?
5. You know this case will be in either a Contracts, Proprety, or Torts textbook in a few years.
6. Talk about playing doctor! Yikes!

Dr. Richard O. Phillips and Dr. Sharon Irons appeared to have an affair together 6 years ago. It appears they liked only oral sex but she secretly kept semen after they had oral sex, then used it to get pregnant. [Ed. I know the little buggers are fairly resilient, but how do you store semen long enough to keep it viable? What was the...err...delivery system? A turkey baster?]

Upon learning he had a child, when Dr. Irons sued for paternity tests, Dr. Phillips filed suit for emotional distress, fraud, and theft. The Illinois Court of Appeals reasoned, "that, if Phillips' story is true, Irons "deceitfully engaged in sexual acts, which no reasonable person would expect could result in pregnancy, to use plaintiff's sperm in an unorthodox, unanticipated manner yielding extreme consequences."" [Ed. You think?]

The case has been remanded back to the trial court to decided the emotional distress issue. The fraud and theft claims were dismissed. Dr. Irons "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," the decision said. "There was no agreement that the original deposit would be returned upon request."" [Ed. Aww...lovemaking distilled into the barest legal terminology. Would Dr. Ruth approve?]

I've always been of the personal opinion that sex should be viewed as a gift. At least in Illinois there is a legal backing for that opinion.