He was the perfect sperm donor. Then 26 families found out he wasn’t

The woman wrote she had learned some unsettling information about their supposedly anonymous donor. He was not the healthy man advertised on his sperm-bank profile. She had discovered he has schizophrenia, a serious mental illness that, according to the U.S. National Institute of Mental Health, occurs in 10 per cent of people who have a parent with it.

Collins, mother of a then 6-year-old son, and other moms who used the donor’s sperm frantically took to the Internet in search of information they hoped would disprove the revelation.

Instead, “it just kept getting worse and worse,” she recounts in her first exclusive interview since her case made headlines around the world a year ago.

The donor was nothing like the perfectly healthy man — aside from some colour blindness on his dad’s side — touted on the sperm bank’s website. Nor was he working on a PhD in neuroscience engineering en route to becoming a professor of biomedical robotics at a medical school.

Instead, Chris Aggeles, a now 39-year-old man from Georgia, has struggled with serious mental illness for much of his adult life. In addition to schizophrenia, court documents show he has had diagnoses of bipolar and narcissistic personality disorders, and has described himself as having schizoaffective disorder.

He has a history of run-ins with the law, has done time in jail, dropped out of college and struggled in the past to hold down jobs.

His sperm has been used to create 36 children: 19 boys and 17 girls from 26 families, according to a 2014 email to Collins from Georgia-based sperm bank Xytex Corp.

And there may be more, says lawyer, Nancy Hersh, a San Francisco-based crusader on women’s health issues who is representing many of the families. He sold his sperm to Xytex between 2000 and 2014, she says, adding that some was stored and made available for use after that time.

The international debacle has shaken confidence in the industry and fuelled a cross-border debate over the ethics of paying men for their sperm. In Canada, where it is illegal, there are calls to change the law to help address a shortage of sperm, and opposing arguments against its commercialization.

Aggeles, his lawyer and some family members declined to be interviewed by the Star for this story despite repeated requests.

Collins, a 45-year-old teacher from this quiet town east of Toronto, says she felt physically ill when she was hit with the realization her “son’s life could just turn on a dime in puberty.”

“It was like a dream turned nightmare in an instant,” she says.

As early as this week, she and her partner, Beth Hanson, intend to file a lawsuit against Xytex from Toronto, Hersh says, noting they have retained local legal counsel. More Canadian families may join the legal action.

As well, Hersh says she intends to file additional lawsuits in the United States on behalf of affected American and British families within the next two months.

Allegations against Xytex, which include fraud and negligent misrepresentation, have not been proven in court and the company denies any wrongdoing.

In a recent email, Xytex lawyer Ted Lavender says the company has been in compliance with industry standards. Xytex will “vigorously defend” itself against any new lawsuits and seek to have them dismissed, he writes, adding that he has no further comment at this time.

This will mark Collins’ second attempt to get legal redress. She and Hanson tried to sue Xytex a year ago in Georgia.

But the case was dismissed because it was considered more of a “wrongful birth” claim, which is not recognized under Georgia law. (This is a legal cause of action in some jurisdictions in which parents claim they were not properly warned of risks of having children with serious health problems.) An appeal was dismissed because of procedural issues.

But Fulton County Superior Court Judge Robert McBurney pointed out that the law is behind the times when it comes to dealing with advances in reproductive technologies, and suggested there should be some way for plaintiffs to seek justice.

“Science has once again — as it always does — outstripped the law,” he wrote. “Plaintiffs make a compelling argument that there should be a way for parties aggrieved as these Plaintiffs are to pursue negligence claims against a service provider in pre-conception services.”

Emboldened by the judge’s words, Collins and Hersh are also turning to the court of public opinion to pressure the sperm-bank industry and government to make changes.

“Given the current state of affairs in the sperm-bank industry, it is strictly a matter of luck if a sperm donor is an upstanding and healthy individual, not a matter of testing, screening, regulating or legislating,” Collins charges.

“Who would have thought that an industry that makes people would be like this?”

She has spent much of the last 22 months calling and writing to sperm banks, distributors and bureaucrats, urging them to address the lack of industry oversight, insufficient screening of sperm donors and Canada’s reliance on U.S. imports.

Hersh calls Collins a “hero” for her ongoing efforts and for going public with the battle.

“She is the Erin Brockovich of the sperm-bank set,” Hersh says. “She is very brave and courageous to be doing all of this to prevent these problems from happening to other people.”

Collins always wanted to have children, but being in a same-sex relationship presented a challenge. In need of sperm, she and Hanson spent about four months in 2006 researching their options.

“I didn’t have a friend in mind and my doctor was actually discouraging of using a known donor,” she says.

A fertility specialist suggested using a sperm bank, explaining that finding a known donor could be difficult and raise custody issues.

She was given names of three sperm banks — one Canadian and two American. The Canadian bank, one of only three in the country that accepts altruistic donations of sperm from Canadian men — had comparatively few donors to choose from, she says.

Since the passage of the 2004 Assisted Human Reproduction Act, which made it illegal for men to get paid for donating sperm, there has been a shortage on this side of the border, local sperm banks report. Canadians seeking sperm are largely at the mercy of foreign markets, primarily the U.S., Health Canada confirms.

Collins says she chose Xytex because of its large, reportedly high-quality donor selection and claims of rigorous screening. “You can rest easy knowing right up front (that) every Xytex donor ranks in the top 1% of the population in health and wellness,” Xytex’s website boasts.

Xytex tests donors and their sperm for infectious diseases such as HIV, hepatitis B and C, and syphilis, according to the website. The company says it requires a physical exam, psychological exam, completion of an extensive questionnaire that delves into personal and family medical history, and genetic testing for a number of conditions, including cystic fibrosis.

Donors must update their medical history and undergo a physical examination every six months, the website says.

As well, Xytex is compliant with Health Canada regulations, which require additional testing for conditions such as chlamydia and gonorrhea.

In 2006, Collins pored over Xytex’s online catalogue in search of a donor. From hundreds of profiles, she zeroed in on “donor 9623” because he was “the male version of my partner,” she says. Like Hanson, the man in the ad was blue eyed, intelligent, academically accomplished and musically gifted.

The donor’s full profile, an archived copy of which can still be found on Xytex’s website, states he has an IQ of 160 (the same as Albert Einstein and Stephen Hawking), bachelor’s and master’s degrees in neuroscience and is pursuing a PhD.

He has received international acclaim for his talent as a drummer, it says.

Included in the profile is a six-page health questionnaire that asks whether he or any blood relative has any of 143 medical conditions. Donor 9623 answers no to all but one; his father is colour blind. Specifically asked if he has schizophrenia or manic depression (bipolar disorder), 9623 responds “no.”

For an extra fee, prospective families could download an audio interview of 9623, conducted by Xytex corporate donor counsellor Mary Hartley, who praises him as the “perfect donor.”

Obtained by the Star, the 2006 recording portrays an articulate and impressive-sounding young man who says he speaks five languages, is studying artificial intelligence and plans on becoming a professor of biomedical robotics at a medical school.

He says he reads four or five books a month (“non-fiction mostly”) and tells of once winning a pizza party at Pizza Hut because he read 300 books in a single month.

Commenting on his motivation to donate, 9623 says: “Sure, at first the money is definitely an attraction. I would be lying if I said it wasn’t, but what really has kept me coming is the fact that I know that I am helping … to give parents who are very eager to have a child one of the greatest gifts in the world, their child. I can’t deny the power of that.”

Hartley gushes over 9623, telling him she knew from the first time she met him five years earlier that he had an above-average IQ. She says she always knew he was motivated by more than money:

“Gosh, you are lucky if you get a handful of men like you. I have been here two decades and I’m telling you, it’s hard to get guys (like you). The monetary compensation is what gets people’s interests, but I could tell you were going to be someone who would stick with it … just because you had a lot of integrity and it means just more than the income.”

Hartley tells 9623 that it’s difficult to get donors of his calibre and that it’s men like him who make sperm banks above average:

“I just remember thinking, good gosh, what a mature young man you were and I could just tell from our first conversation that you were very special . . . I said, ‘Oh my gosh, you are going to be the perfect donor.’”

The interview was not available when Collins chose 9623. The written profile was nevertheless enough to sell her on him.

She admits there was one sentence that gave her pause: “The medical and social history was provided by the donor and cannot be verified for accuracy.”

Collins says she was concerned enough to call Xytex and alleges that her misgivings were allayed when a company representative told her: “We do all of our own internal testing to the degree that you will know more about your donor than your own partner.”

A distributor imported the sperm to Canada. Collins was impregnated through artificial insemination at a Toronto fertility clinic. She gave birth to her son in July 2007.

The mothers who used 9623’s sperm learned of his real identity when Xytex released it to some of them in a 2014 email, seemingly inadvertently and “in a breach of confidentiality,” Hersh says.

The curious moms naturally took to the Internet to learn what they could about James Christian “Chris” Aggeles.

A U.S. mom was the first to spot trouble when she stumbled across a YouTube video of a young woman describing her struggles with schizophrenia. In 2012, an individual by the name of Chris Aggeles added this comment to the video, which has since been taken down:

“I have schizophrenia, and the ‘hearing voices’ is kind of hard to explain, but here goes: so I will be thinking something like, what I am going to make for dinner, and it’s like my thought gets interrupted by a voice that tells me something that usually has nothing to do with what I was just thinking. It’s usually mean, and will say things that are derogatory and demeaning to me.”

Hersh says she interviewed Aggeles while preparing the first lawsuit against Xytex and that he acknowledged there were misrepresentations in his profile.

Through public record searches, the Star has verified Aggeles’ donor profile contained incorrect information and has discovered additional details about his mental health, criminal past, education and work history.

An Oct. 2005 forensic report, obtained from the Cobb County Superior Court in Georgia, shows he was charged with burglary seven months earlier, when he was 28. He allegedly broke into a house and stole a large number of musical instruments.

The report was prepared by a psychologist who assessed him and determined he was competent to stand trial despite being mentally ill.

There was some disagreement over Aggeles’ diagnosis with hospital records showing an earlier diagnosis of cannabis-induced psychotic disorder had been changed to schizophrenia.

The report also states Aggeles had experienced “significant grandiose delusions” and been diagnosed with narcissistic personality disorder as well as bipolar disorder.

Aggeles told the psychologist he had a seven-year history of psychiatric problems and had been hospitalized “numerous” times.

The forensic report goes on to say that he had a history of arrests for trespassing, DUI and disorderly conduct. The Star was unable to confirm the outcome of those arrests.

The Star also obtained from the court a transcript from a Nov. 2005 hearing during which Aggeles pleaded guilty to the burglary charge. Aggeles is quoted as telling the court he has bipolar and schizoaffective disorders.

The transcript indicates he was not receiving proper medical treatment at the time of the break-in, but by his plea hearing, was on medication and regularly seeing a psychiatrist.

His stepfather testified that Aggeles had suffered a series of psychotic episodes since age 19. Prior to that, the young man was on a promising trajectory. Very bright, he graduated from high school as an honour student and began studying at the University of Georgia (UGA) on a full scholarship.

“High stress situations and lack of medication cause him to have psychotic episodes . . . With supervision with medication, I think he is a productive citizen,” the stepfather told the court.

Aggeles mother also testified her son committed the burglary because his medication had been changed “and he was not mentally sane as a result and decided to take affairs into his own crazy head.”

She explained he had a “very sporadic” work history and was not able to hold jobs for long. At the time, he had been working at the Outback Steakhouse for a month and prior to that at “a pizza place” for two months.

But things “finally” seemed to be turning around for Aggeles, his mother told the court, explaining that “for the first time in 10 years,” he was able to take care of his mental health, education and employment.

Facing a maximum sentence of 20 years in jail, Aggeles was sentenced instead as a first offender, a disposition that meant a felony conviction would not appear on his record so long as he obeyed numerous conditions, among them staying on medication and continuing medical treatment.

He was ordered incarcerated for eight months with the rest of a 10-year sentence to be served on probation, according to a copy of the disposition obtained by the Star.

Aggeles promised to return to Athens Technical College from where he had dropped out the previous year. He said he wanted to get his grade point average up, return to UGA and get his scholarship back.

“I’m very repentant and it’s the stupidest thing I’ve ever done,” Aggeles told the court. “I will never, ever commit another crime.”

In delivering her sentence, Justice Adele Grubbs said: “Somehow he’s got to learn that he is personally responsible for his actions, not anybody else.”

Aggeles did manage to make it back to UGA, graduating just last year. Two decades after starting at the university, he graduated with a bachelor’s in cognitive science, minoring in computer science, according to the registrar’s office. He attended the university in 1995 and 1996, then again from 2012 to 2015. He has also attended Kennesaw State University.

Another inconsistency that jumped out at the families relates to photographs of Aggeles posted on his donor profile on the Xytex website. A childhood photo included in an early version of the profile showed a large mole on his cheek. But in a later version of the profile, a photo of the donor at a younger age curiously showed no mole.

Hersh alleges it was doctored.

Xytex denies this and says the donor provided signed photos of himself and that the company never altered them.

Aggeles appears to be doing well today. He is currently enrolled in a master’s program in artificial intelligence and working at UGA as a research assistant.

Social media posts show that he got married last summer and that he plays drums in an indie-rock band.

Xytex maintains it has done nothing wrong.

In an open letter posted on the company’s website last April, president Kevin O’Brien indicated Xytex relies on the honour system when it comes to collecting medical and social histories of donors. Xytex has always been upfront about letting would-be parents know the company does not corroborate such information, he said.

“He (Aggeles) reported a good health history and stated in his application that he had no physical or medical impairments. This information was passed on to the couple, who were clearly informed the representations were reported by the donor and were not verified by Xytex,” O’Brien wrote, referring to Collins and Hanson.

Collins and Hersh want sperm banks to do more rigorous vetting of donors, specifically by getting applicants to sign releases granting access to medical records. They also want sperm banks to do thorough criminal and education background checks.

Given that donors can make up to $150 per donation, there is an incentive for men who would not pass the screening process to lie to make money, Hersh argues. This may be particularly attractive to those who have trouble finding employment, for example, men who are seriously mentally ill and ex-cons, she says.

The pair wants Xytex to create a medical fund so that offspring created from Aggeles’ sperm can be monitored as they grow for early signs of mental illness. Disorders such a schizophrenia are usually not diagnosed until the late teens and 20s. The fund would also be used for early intervention and treatment so the children could live the best lives possible.

They also want Xytex to make good on a pledge on its website to inform parents of “new information” it learns about donors, which its medical director deems medically significant. Hersh says she is in contact with 16 families who have 23 children between them and none have been informed by Xytex about problems with donor 9623.

Collins wants the Canadian government to amend the 2004 Assisted Human Reproduction Act, which made it illegal to pay sperm donors, egg donors and surrogates anything but expenses.

She may have found a friend in Quebec Liberal MP Anthony Housefather (Mount Royal). A lawyer, he has been pushing for changes to the legislation since getting elected last October, prompted by friends who have hit him up for free legal advice after being stymied in their attempts to expand their families through assisted reproduction.

They have been forced to look abroad for sperm, eggs and surrogates because the legislation limits availability here, he says, explaining that demand for assisted human reproduction is growing because of the increase in same-sex unions, single parents and women conceiving later in life.

“We need to have a Canadian solution,” argues Housefather, adding that it’s “ludicrous” Canadian men cannot sell their sperm, but that Canada allows imports from countries where men can be paid.

“Nobody is going to do this unless they are compensated,” he argues, noting that prior to the legislation there were “dozens of sperm banks” in Canada where Canadian men could sell their sperm and now there are only three where men can donate without pay.

Housefather would also like to see regulations adopted requiring sperm banks to obtain medical records from donors and to do thorough background checks to confirm information provided by donors, for example criminal and education background checks.

But others, including academic Alana Cattapan, warn that allowing men to sell their sperm is a bad idea. The post-doctoral fellow studying assisted reproduction at Dalhousie University says one reason the Assisted Human Reproduction Act was introduced was to prevent commercialization of human tissues and fluids.

Though 22 years have elapsed since it came into force, the principle behind it remains important to Canadians, she contends.

Cattapan argues the focus should instead be on facilitating altruistic donation of sperm around the world, that is, sperm that’s actually donated rather than sold.

She cautions against continuing down the slippery slope of “reproductive capitalism,” warning that it’s ethically fraught.

From all appearances, Collins’ son, now 8, is happy and healthy.

The sweet, blond boy does well in school and is musically gifted. Like his donor, he plays the drums.

But Collins can’t help but worry for him.

“The most important entity to me is potentially facing a very debilitating lifestyle,” she says.

She says she feels cheated: “I felt like I was duped by Xytex and I failed my son for having chosen Xytex. In hindsight, a hitchhiker on the side of the road would have been a far more responsible option for conceiving a child.”

When Collins’ story hit the airwaves last April, she was forced to provide “my lad,” as she calls him, with age-appropriate information about the case.

“I told him, ‘The man who helped create you and all your half siblings has something wrong with his brain. He shouldn’t have been donating and the company shouldn’t have been promoting him. We want to make sure that all you kids are safe in the future so we’re suing.

“He didn’t ask at the time what was suing and we didn’t have to explain that. But he did ask, ‘So mommy, am I OK?’

“’You are fine right now,’ I said. He was like ‘OK’ and off he went.”