Semen Retention Triggered Paternity Lawsuit

In 1999, a male Chicago family physician named Richard O. Phillips had a four-month affair with a female internal medicine physician named Sharon Irons. Phillips alleged that although they never had intercourse, Irons secretly retained his semen after oral sex and used it to impregnate herself, while Irons claimed they conceived the child through intercourse. Nearly two years after the child's birth, Irons filed a paternity lawsuit, DNA testing confirmed Phillips as the father, and a court ordered him to pay about $800 per month in child support. Phillips then sued Irons for theft, fraud, and emotional distress, but an Illinois appellate court dismissed the first two claims in 2005 while allowing his emotional distress claim to proceed.

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