Morris Wortman estate agrees to settle with woman who alleged she was victim of fertility fraud

The estate of the late Dr. Morris Wortman has agreed to a settlement with a woman who alleged she was a victim of Wortman’s fertility fraud — instances in which he used his own sperm to impregnate women who came to him for help conceiving.

Court records show that attorneys for Morgan Hellquist, who sued Wortman for medical malpractice, have reached a settlement. The amount has been kept confidential, and the possible payment has been stalled by other claims against Wortman’s estate.

Hellquist’s parents visited Wortman, a fertility specialist, in the 1980s after struggling to conceive. Wortman inseminated Hellquist’s mother with sperm that, according to court papers, he said came from a University of Rochester medical student. It was instead his own, the lawsuit alleged.

Morgan Hellquist was an offspring of the procedure and, as an adult, she saw Wortman as her obstetrician-gynecology.

Doctor was using his own sperm

In a December ruling, Monroe County Surrogate’s Court Judge Christopher Ciaccio determined that Hellquist’s claim against the estate, from the planned settlement, is valid and should be paid. Her attorneys declined to comment. Surrogate’s Court handles probate and estate matters, sometimes determining the fate of claims.

Wortman ran a fertility clinic operation, the Center for Menstrual Disorders, and it “was a regular part of his practice to perform an artificial insemination procedure on women who were unable to get pregnant,” Ciaccio wrote. “He represented, in at least the case of the parents of Morgan Hellquist, that he would use the sperm of a donor.

“That was a lie. He used in this case and was using in many other cases (including that of one of the other filed claims), his own sperm.”

Wortman died in 2023 in a crash of an experimental airplane. He was 72.

At the time of his death more than a dozen individuals had claimed they were his offspring through fertility fraud.

Court records show that two of those individuals, brothers Chris and Brian Muench, also may make a claim against Wortman’s estate. Another lawsuit, alleging medical malpractice with no connections to fertility fraud, also could end with a claim against the estate.

Who will get paid first from estate?

In his ruling, Ciaccio said he cannot dictate what claims are paid first. That, he said, will be the responsibility of the estate executor. “It is for the fiduciary to decide whether to pay the (Hellquist) claim now or to wait until all claims against the Estate of Morris Wortman are known,” Ciaccio wrote.

However, Ciaccio said the executor could now agree to pay the Hellquist settlement if the executor so chooses, without waiting for the resolution of the remainder of the division of the estate. “The executor can proceed to pay the claim if deemed appropriate,” Ciaccio wrote.

Hellquist’s allegations stand out from others who say they are Wortman’s offspring because he became her OB-GYN, allegedly knowing he was her biological father. Her lawsuit alleges this was medical malpractice.

New York lags behind some other states that have created laws allowing civil and criminal responses to fertility fraud.

— Gary Craig is a veteran reporter who has written extensively of fertility fraud, including stories that Dr. Morris Wortman may have been one of three local physicians committing the fraud in the 1980s.

This article originally appeared on Rochester Democrat and Chronicle: Wortman estate agrees to settle with woman who alleged fertility fraud