A fertility doctor accused of using his sperm to pregnant patients died after a hand-built plane in which he was a passenger collapsed and crashed in mid-flight.
Dr. Morris Wortman, 72, of Rochester, was a passenger in the experimental plane that crashed Sunday, May 29 in a meadow in Orleans County, killing both him and the pilot, Earl Luce Jr., according to police.
The National Transportation Safety Board revealed that the aircraft involved in the disaster was a Wittman W-5 Buttercup, and an inquiry was ongoing as of Tuesday, May 30.
According to preliminary investigations, ‘the wings of the aircraft became disconnected from the fuselage and fell to the ground in an orchard,’ according to Sheriff Christopher Bourke in a news statement. Before crashing, the fuselage continued west for another 1,000 to 1,500 yards.
The NTSBP stated that it was examining the ‘crash of a Wittman W-5 Buttercup’, which Luce, 70, had built in an attempt to mimic the original plane built by Steve Wittman.
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According to the Aviation Safety Network, the plane’s registration was N18263 – which matches the description of the one that Luce had built.
Wortman, a well-known obstetrician in western New York, was frequently the target of anti-abortion protesters.
The daughter of one of Wortman’s patients, Morgan Hellquist, whose mother became pregnant in the 1980s, sued Wortman in 2021.
It was stated that he used his own sperm, which he said belonged to a medical student, to inseminate Jo Ann Levy in January 1985.
According to the lawsuit, the doctor told the plaintiff that the donor was a local medical student while secretly using his own sperm.
It claimed that Wortman kept the secret even after his biological daughter started seeing him for gynaecology.
According to the medical malpractice claim, the daughter learned that Wortman was the donor after DNA genealogy tests showed she had at least nine half-siblings.
In the legal complaint, which is still continuing in Monroe County Court, it was claimed that subsequent DNA testing with Wortman’s daughter from his first marriage established the genetic connection.
The lawsuit claims that between 1983 and 1985, Wortman treated Hellquist’s mother, giving her sperm injections two or three times each month for $50 each.
