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Japanese woman sues sperm donor and gives up baby over identity fraud

By Merryn Porter |

A Japanese woman who became pregnant after she sought out a sperm donor on social media gave up the baby and is suing the man for fraud after learning he lied about his education and nationality.

The New Post reported this week that the Tokyo woman is suing the sperm donor for 330 million yen (more than AUD$4 million) after learning he was not who he said he was.

The woman in her 30s already had a child with her husband, but decided to use a sperm donor to conceive because her husband had an hereditary disorder.

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A Japanese woman who used a sperm donor to became pregnant gave up the baby (not pictured) after she learned he had lied about his identity. (Getty Images/iStockphoto)

Japan's sperm donation industry is reportedly largely unregulated, leaving couples to find donors through other means.

The woman took to social media to find a donor, before choosing who she thought was a successful Japanese man who had been educated at the prestigious Kyoto University. They had sex 10 times, before she fell pregnant in July 2019.

However, she learned soon after the donor was in fact a married Chinese man and had not attended the university.

She decided to put the baby up for adoption as it was too late for an abortion and is now reportedly suing the man for fraud, citing "emotional distress".

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The woman's lawyer told a recent press conference that his client said the ordeal had caused her physical and emotional distress, in part due to the backlash she received for giving up the child.

A Japanese child welfare worker said the woman was "shallow" for treating the child, who would now be a toddler, "like an object", but felt the child would be better off with a good foster parent.

Sperm donation is highly regulated in Australia, and it is illegal to buy or sell sperm. There are also different laws governing sperm donation in each state.

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