A fertility doctor in Vermont faces having his medical license revoked because of his alleged misleading responses and “lack of candor” to a panel investigating him for using his own sperm to impregnate two female patients decades ago.
Assistant Attorney General Megan Campbell recently submitted the charging document to the state’s Board of Medical Practice against Dr. John Boyd Coates III, who is facing two lawsuits in federal court in Vermont accusing him of lying to patients about their sperm donor.
Coates was first licensed in May 1974, and currently holds an active medical license.
According to Campbell’s filing, the board assigned a probe into the matter to its South Investigative Committee after a person listed as Patient I, identified as Cheryl Rousseau in a December 2018 lawsuit, brought a complaint against the doctor to the board in January 2019.
That lawsuit stated that Rousseau went to Coates for fertility treatment over 40 years ago. At that time, according to the lawsuit, Coates told her he had used sperm from a medical student to impregnate her, but it later turned out he used his own genetic material.
In court filings, Coates has since admitted to using his own sperm.
According to the complaint filed by Campbell, the medical board’s investigation committee asked Coates about the allegation and in April 2019 he provided a response denying that he was father of the child.
However, the filing stated, Coates “affirmed that he would have told her that the donor and recipient of the sperm would be anonymous ‘to protect both from later intrusive and unwanted contact.’”
The committee asked Coates to submit to genetic testing to verify his denial of paternity and he refused, the filing stated. The panel later learned that Coates had taken part in genetic testing “in another forum.”
As part of Rousseau’s lawsuit, a judge ruled he had to undergo genetic testing. In light of that testing, Campbell wrote, the investigation committee asked Coates again to provide information about the paternity of Rousseau’s child.
In November 2020, according to the complaint, Coates responded to that request, admitting that he was the father of the child, but claimed he had no memory of Rousseau’s treatment or using his own sperm in the procedure.
In that letter, the complaint stated, Coates also wrote, “I have no knowledge of, or reason to suspect the existence of, any other occasion where I used my own sperm in the performance of an artificial insemination procedure.”
Campbell’s filing added that a second complaint was brought to the board in January 2021 from a second patient, identified only as Patient 2 but named in a separate lawsuit as Shirley Brown. The filing said she reported that in 1978 Coates had used his own sperm during an artificial insemination by donor procedure without her knowledge or her consent.
Brown brought her lawsuit against Coates, also in federal court in Vermont, earlier this year.
Information leading to that second lawsuit was revealed after a newspaper ad was taken out by the daughter, now in her 40s, of Cheryl and Peter Rousseau.
“In Search of DNA Brothers and Sisters,” said the ad that ran in the Valley Reporter in Waitsfield. The ad sought out people born through Coates’ practice, which included locations in Berlin and Burlington, between 1976 and 2009.
After that ad ran, Brown’s daughter, now 42, used DNA testing and determined that Coates was her genetic father, according to Brown’s lawsuit.
Had Brown known that Coates would use his genetic material rather than sperm from a medical student donor as he had said, the lawsuit stated, she would not have proceeded with the treatment.
In April 2021, according to the charging document to the medical practice board, Coates admitted he used his own sperm to perform the artificial insemination in that case as well, and that he was the biological father of the child.
Coates again reported in his letter to the investigation committee that he had no memory of Brown, her treatment, or using his own sperm during the procedure.
The charging document against Coates claimed he made a “material misrepresentation” in November 2020 when he stated to the investigation committee he had no knowledge of using his own sperm during procedures except for the one he performed for Rousseau.
Coates’ “lack of candor” during the investigation, the filing added, “constitutes conduct evidencing an unfitness to practice medicine” under state law.
The filing also accuses him of unprofessional conduct, gross violations of the standard of care, and a “willful misrepresentation in medical treatments.”
The document calls for a public reprimand for Coates, revocation of his medical license on a “permanent basis,” and a penalty of at least $4,000.
A hearing before the medical practice board is set for Sept. 14.
According to Charity Clark, chief of staff for Vermont Attorney General TJ Donovan, Campbell represents the medical practice board as a client agency and, in this case, specifically the investigatory committee.
Clark referred further comment to David Herlihy, the medical board’s executive director. Herlihy, reached Wednesday, said he couldn’t comment on matters related to pending cases.
Peter Joslin, an attorney for Coates, did not return a phone call Wednesday seeking comment.
Both federal lawsuits against Coates remain pending.
“Our client placed trust in Dr. Coates and that trust was violated,” Celeste Lamarie, an attorney for Rousseau, said Wednesday. “We’ll cooperate with the licensing board in whatever way they need.”
