The Michigan House of Representatives passed a bill Wednesday to penalize fertility health doctors and donors if they lie about the samples used in a procedure.
The package would outlaw knowingly giving false information regarding a donor’s social, educational, and family medical history. It would also ban doctors from using their own samples with patients, as reportedly happened years ago with a now-deceased metro-Detroit doctor.
State Representative John Roth (R-Interlochen) said the bills would give patients basic protections.
“Donors need to come in and be honest about who they are. They don’t have to give their name, they can do it anonymously. But not giving some of their personal background is unacceptable. And, when they lie about it, it’s really bad,” Roth told reporters after Wednesday’s vote.
Opponents of the package say it needs changes to stop people from being criminalized for honest mistakes.
Despite having bipartisan co-sponsorship, Democrats in the state House minority largely voted against the bills.
State Representative Laurie Pohutksy (D-Livonia) said she supported the cause of ending so-called “fertility fraud.”
“But this package goes really far beyond that and creates liability where the person who is potentially being held liable doesn’t really have a reasonable expectation of knowing everything that these bills would require them to know,” she said after the vote.
The bills specify someone would have to “knowingly, intentionally, or willfully” mislead someone in assisted reproduction to be charged.
Still, Pohutsky said she felt other wording in the bills could punish people for not knowing their complete family background, for example. The legislation defines family medical history as including first-, second-, and third- degree relatives.
“I couldn’t find my third cousin if I had to, much less tell you about their extended medical history,” Pohutsky said.
During Wednesday’s House session, Democrats put forward some suggested changes to the bills that they said would have addressed their concerns. Those did not pass in the Republican-controlled chamber.
Roth said the proposals would have gutted the bills by easing requirements for donors.
“We have to have everyone doing the right thing. Donors can’t just come in and just absolutely lie about who they are. And, unfortunately, a lot of those amendments would have done that,”
This is the third legislative term Roth has tried to pass similar bills. The first time around, in the 2021-2022 session, some of the bills in the package passed the House with unanimous support.
The current bills now head to the Democratic-controlled Michigan Senate.
