A Wisconsin lawsuit is making national headlines by accusing a doctor who holds an Arizona medical license of using his own sperm to inseminate patients without their knowledge.
Mary Ellen Lukezich and her son Joseph Laedtke filed the lawsuit in Milwaukee County Circuit Court alleging Dr. Frederick Dettmann deceptively used his own sperm to inseminate Lukezich in the early 1980s when she was seeking artificial insemination.
Forty years later, after Laedtke submitted his DNA to Ancestry.com, he said he discovered several half-siblings — and they all shared links to a common person.
"Words cannot fully express what it feels like to learn your entire identity is built on a lie, by a doctor who took an oath to do no harm," Laedtke said, during a press conference held in the Milwaukee area.
Dettmann practiced as an OB-GYN in the Milwaukee area for decades.
Online Arizona Medical Board records show Dettmann has been licensed in Arizona since 1997.
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However, it does not appear he has practiced in the state.
His official online profile is mostly empty, and it shows his license is set to expire next year.
State medical board officials said that Dettmann does not have a practice address on file.
ABC15 went to Dettmann's Scottsdale home to seek a response to the allegations.
Dettman did not answer and he and his attorney have not responded to further questions about whether the doctor ever practiced in Arizona.
In a previous statement, his attorney said Dettmann retired in the 1990s and denies the allegations in the lawsuit.
This digital article was produced with the assistance of AI and converted to this platform based on the broadcast story written and reported by ABC15 Chief Investigator Dave Biscobing (Dave@abc15.com). Our editorial team verifies all reporting on all platforms for fairness and accuracy.
