American Notes Fraud

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.

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.

"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.