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                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: WEDNESDAY, February 3, 1993                   TAG: 9302030231
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: B5   EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: RICHMOND                                LENGTH: Short

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INFERTILITY SPECIALIST APPEALS

Lawyers for a fertility specialist convicted of fraud for impregnating patients with his own sperm said Tuesday that prosecutors wrongly attacked their client because of his unorthodox treatment methods.

Dr. Cecil Jacobson, 55, was convicted last year of 52 counts of fraud and perjury and sentenced to five years in prison for using his own sperm to inseminate women and for fooling others into believing they were pregnant.

Jeffrey S. Parker argued before a three-judge panel of the 4th U.S. District Court of Appeals that courts cannot use medical opinion to determine fraud.

Parker said the U.S. District Court in Alexandria erred when it convicted Jacobson based on testimony from other physicians who disagreed with Jacobson's methods.

"The problem of this case is that the government sought to attack medical science rather than charge a crime," Parker said after the hearing.

"Sperm donation is a secondary issue. The only thing promised was anonymity, not selectivity," Parker said.

Former patients of Jacobson's Northern Virginia practice had testified that they never would have allowed Jacobson to perform artificial inseminations if they were aware he was using his own sperm.

Prosecutors said Jacobson fathered up to 75 children while telling patients he was using an anonymous sperm-donor program.

"He made a mistake," said James R. Tate, who also represents Jacobson. "He did not commit fraud."

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