Amanda Zinkon (L) and Jennifer Cramblett

Commentary by Susan Brinkmann, OCDS

A white lesbian couple is suing a sperm bank for giving them the "wrong" sperm which resulted in a mixed race baby daughter whom they love - BUT - she wasn't what they ordered.

The Daily Mail is reporting on the case of Jennifer Cramblett, 36, and her partner, Amanda Zinkon, 29, who are suing the Midwest Sperm Bank in Chicago for sending them sperm from an African American man rather than the sperm the couple ordered.

According to the suit, Cramblett and her partner chose donor No. 380, who was a blonde, blue-eyed white man, but when their doctor received the vials, it was from donor No. 330, who was African American. No one caught the mistake until Cramblett was well along in the pregnancy and decided to "order" another child from the same donor and requested more vials of sperm.

"On August 21, 2012, Jennifer gave birth to Payton, a beautiful, obviously mixed-race baby girl," the lawsuit states. "Jennifer bonded with Payton easily and she and Amanda love her very much. Even so, Jennifer lives each day with fears, anxieties and uncertainty about her future and Payton's future."

Complicating this already strange story is the fact that the couple lives in a small Ohio town known as Uniontown where there are less than 3,000 people, none of them black - until Payton came along.

"Because of this background and upbringing, Jennifer acknowledges her limited cultural competency relative to African-Americans and steep learning curve, particularly in small, homogenous Uniontown, which she regards as too racially intolerant," the lawsuit states.

As Cramblett readily admits, members of her own family are racist and have already made comments in front of the child.

To make matters worse, they're also "homophobes" who have never accepted her homosexuality.

For this reason, she fears that her "all white and unconsciously insensitive family" will have a negative effect on her daughter.

"Though compelled to repress her individuality amongst family members, Payton's differences are irrepressible, and Jennifer does not want Payton to feel stigmatized or unrecognized due simply to the circumstances of her birth," the lawsuit states. "Jennifer's stress and anxiety intensify when she envisions Payton entering an all-white school."

Apparently, she's also stressed by the fact that Payton has typical African-American hair which means her mothers have to drive her to a special shop for a haircut.

"To get a decent cut, Jennifer must travel to a black neighborhood, far from where she lives, where she is obviously different in appearance, and not overtly welcome," the lawsuit claims.

The women decided their only recourse was to sue the sperm bank for a minimum of $50,000 in damages for wrongful birth and breach of warranty.

It's the "principal", Cramblett claims. "There was no sorry, no accountability. I wanted them to stand up and say 'this is what we did'." She's hoping their lawsuit will prevent this from ever happening again.

How noble! If only she could have been more thoughtful about the child she was bringing into the world.

Here's a child who will grow up in a strange and twisted world where her "mommies" aren't accepted by her own extended family, let alone her classmates in school who will wonder where her father is at every extra-curricular event. They'll also ask why she's a different color than her mommies.

Should she tell them the truth, as macabre as it is? "The sperm bank mixed up the sperm. But my mommies sued and won a lot of money because they didn't get what they ordered." Wow! What a heritage! Not exactly the kind of bragging rights kids want to have, are they?

But who cares about them. What matters is that Cramblett and her "wife" believe they are entitled to everything that heterosexual couples have, even the right to have children, regardless of the fact that this is biologically impossible.

It seems the only people who take the child's side in all this is the Catholic Church who dares to teach that " The human being must be respected—as a person—from the very first instant of his existence."

This child also has "the right to be conceived, carried in the womb, brought into the world and brought up within marriage [of a man and a woman]: it is through the secure and recognized relationship to his own parents that the child can discover his own identity and achieve his own proper human development."

For the sake of our children, we have an obligation to cooperate with this natural plan!

"By reason of the vocation and social responsibilities of the person, the good of the children and of the parents contributes to the good of civil society; the vitality and stability of society require that children come into the world within a family and that the family be firmly based on marriage."

After reading such a weird story this one, the genuine love upon which Church teaching is based makes even more sense than usual.

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