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- NATION, Page 33American NotesFRAUDWhat's Up, Doc?
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- When the happy mother saw her daughter's first baby pictures,
- she had a startled reaction: "Whoa, who does she look like?" The
- woman and her husband agreed that their child bore a striking
- resemblance to Dr. Cecil Jacobson, who had been treating them
- for infertility.
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- They weren't the only ones. In Alexandria, Va., last week,
- a federal jury found that Jacobson had artificially inseminated
- more than a dozen patients with his own sperm, claiming that it
- came from anonymous donors. DNA tests linked Jacobson to at
- least 15 such children, and prosecutors charged he may have
- fathered as many as 75. Jacobson also fooled patients into
- believing they were pregnant when they were not through hormone
- treatments that simulated side effects of pregnancy -- then
- billed them for the conception.
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- "I spent my life trying to help women have children," said
- Jacobson, a prominent infertility specialist who introduced
- amniocentesis in the U.S. to diagnose defects in unborn babies.
- "It's a shock to be found guilty of trying to help people."
- Convicted on 52 counts of fraud and perjury, the doctor faces
- up to 280 years in prison and $500,000 in fines when he is
- sentenced in May.
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