WEBVTT - All Fertility Doctors Are Bastards 0:00:01.560 --> 0:00:07.840 What's without an introduction my podcast. I'm Robert Evans, host 0:00:07.880 --> 0:00:09.920 of Behind the Bastards, the show where we tell you 0:00:09.960 --> 0:00:12.119 everything about the worst people in all of history and 0:00:12.160 --> 0:00:16.280 are chronically unprepared to actually start the show that allows 0:00:16.280 --> 0:00:20.480 me to pay rent and buy food. Um, I'm ashamed 0:00:20.520 --> 0:00:23.080 of me. I'm sure Sophie's ashamed of me, but I 0:00:23.120 --> 0:00:25.959 can't know. Oh now I can know because she said yes. 0:00:26.840 --> 0:00:30.160 But you know who's fifty chance not ashamed of me? 0:00:30.440 --> 0:00:33.159 My guest today, Mr Billy Wayne Davis. I am not. 0:00:33.600 --> 0:00:36.120 I'm not proud, but I'm not ashamed, do you know 0:00:36.159 --> 0:00:38.680 what I mean? That's what I shoot for, Like you 0:00:38.760 --> 0:00:42.560 pulled it out kind of yeah. Yeah, but everybody listening 0:00:42.760 --> 0:00:47.239 is going come on, man, yeah, I'm uh. You know. 0:00:47.400 --> 0:00:49.360 The lesson I learned long ago is that if I 0:00:49.400 --> 0:00:52.960 just keep talking, um, about sixty percent of the time, 0:00:53.080 --> 0:00:55.960 I can pull victory from failure. Um. And I learned 0:00:55.960 --> 0:00:59.800 that lesson with cops, but it applies to podcasting too. Yeah, 0:01:00.040 --> 0:01:02.200 it's I think it applies to a lot more of 0:01:02.280 --> 0:01:05.360 life than it should that if you just keep talking 0:01:05.480 --> 0:01:07.200 a lot of times, most people be like, all right, 0:01:07.280 --> 0:01:12.200 just get it, all right, just get going. Speaking of 0:01:12.240 --> 0:01:17.000 getting going, Billy Wayne, have you ever used a fertility doctor? 0:01:17.080 --> 0:01:20.200 That is an inappropriate questions? I'm pre open um. I 0:01:20.240 --> 0:01:25.240 have two kids, and I wasn't actively planning but either 0:01:25.280 --> 0:01:27.760 of them. I wasn't upset that it happened either. But no, 0:01:27.920 --> 0:01:32.560 I haven't. I haven't. Okay, Well, um, would you be 0:01:32.680 --> 0:01:34.319 would you be surprised? Like? What do you what do 0:01:34.360 --> 0:01:37.039 you think when you think like a fertility doctor? Like, 0:01:37.280 --> 0:01:39.160 do you have any sort of conceptions in your head 0:01:39.160 --> 0:01:41.720 about the kind of person who would take that job? 0:01:42.560 --> 0:01:45.160 I think it feels like someone that wants to help 0:01:45.959 --> 0:01:50.920 couples create life and create a family. That seems like 0:01:50.960 --> 0:01:54.680 a like somebody like a family doctor that was like, Oh, 0:01:54.720 --> 0:01:57.320 I'm pretty good at making this happen. So I and 0:01:57.400 --> 0:01:59.320 I have a good bedside manner. Let's go that help 0:01:59.320 --> 0:02:02.920 see these people out. It seems like like a fundamentally 0:02:02.960 --> 0:02:08.600 noble endeavor, right, Yeah, I like that. It seems correct, 0:02:08.840 --> 0:02:13.280 It seems noble. Well, the working title of our episode 0:02:13.400 --> 0:02:17.880 is all fertility doctors are bastards. Uh, and that's that's 0:02:18.360 --> 0:02:22.679 not entirely fair. And the the large fertility doctor contingent 0:02:22.720 --> 0:02:25.760 of bastards pod listeners are probably angry, but I will 0:02:25.800 --> 0:02:28.200 say from everything I can tell, it is a field 0:02:28.200 --> 0:02:31.200 with like a shockingly high rate of a very specific 0:02:31.280 --> 0:02:33.400 type of bastard. And that's what we're going to talk 0:02:33.440 --> 0:02:37.520 about today. Yeah, it's weird. Um, it'll all make sense 0:02:37.560 --> 0:02:39.519 in the end, but the journey is going to be 0:02:39.680 --> 0:02:44.080 a little bizarre. See m M, you know what that's. 0:02:44.160 --> 0:02:46.760 I mean, as long as they get as long as 0:02:46.760 --> 0:02:49.639 we get them graduated from medical school, I think we're 0:02:50.160 --> 0:02:54.440 step ahead of everything else we've done. Well. Yes, yes, 0:02:54.520 --> 0:02:58.480 these are definitely I don't know. You know actually, Billy, Yeah, 0:02:58.520 --> 0:03:01.359 put a pin in that because you and I primarily 0:03:01.360 --> 0:03:05.320 talk about fake doctors, and it's really debatable as to 0:03:05.360 --> 0:03:07.840 whether or not a lot of these people are, Like 0:03:07.880 --> 0:03:09.880 they all have m d s. So I will say, 0:03:09.919 --> 0:03:11.960 like in that regard, yes, they're more real than the 0:03:12.000 --> 0:03:14.960 fake doctors we normally talk about. But I think in 0:03:15.000 --> 0:03:18.400 a fundamental way, all of the people were talking about 0:03:18.400 --> 0:03:21.480 today are in fact fake doctors, regardless of their real 0:03:21.800 --> 0:03:24.600 um m D credentials. See it's like, you don't think 0:03:24.639 --> 0:03:28.040 of that part of doctor because yeah, you think that 0:03:28.120 --> 0:03:30.799 law there's a lot of lawyers that go to that 0:03:31.560 --> 0:03:34.000 you know, whatever, and they're like, yeah, I'm technically a lawyer, 0:03:34.040 --> 0:03:36.360 and you're like, okay, whatever. I mean, your whole profession 0:03:36.440 --> 0:03:40.560 is technicalities anyway, But yeah, a doctor is that I'm 0:03:40.560 --> 0:03:44.200 a doctor? Next, son of a bitch? Yeah, yeah, yeah, 0:03:44.240 --> 0:03:47.360 this is this is an episode about the gray area 0:03:47.480 --> 0:03:50.360 and the fake doctor designation. So we'll we'll circle back 0:03:50.400 --> 0:03:53.600 around to discussing that around the end if I remember too, 0:03:53.600 --> 0:03:55.360 because about eighty percent of the time when I say 0:03:55.400 --> 0:03:58.600 we'll circle back to something, we completely forget um and 0:03:58.680 --> 0:04:02.000 never do. And that is also one of the hallmarks 0:04:02.000 --> 0:04:06.600 of my show, along with terrible introductions. So yeah, this 0:04:06.680 --> 0:04:10.360 episode originally started as a fan submission of a subject, 0:04:10.880 --> 0:04:15.000 Dr Norman Barrwin. Uh. He's a Canadian fertility doctor who 0:04:15.080 --> 0:04:17.000 is a real piece of ship. And we will still 0:04:17.040 --> 0:04:19.520 be talking about Dr Barwin, but as I dug into 0:04:19.600 --> 0:04:23.680 his story, I come upon a bigger, weirder, and bastardier 0:04:23.960 --> 0:04:27.360 story and that is what we will be talking about today. Um. Now, 0:04:27.400 --> 0:04:29.279 there are a million different places we could start, but 0:04:29.320 --> 0:04:31.719 in the interest of simplicity, I'm going to kick it 0:04:31.760 --> 0:04:35.039 off in nineteen thirty nine with the birth of Bernard 0:04:35.279 --> 0:04:39.560 Norman Barwin. Barwin was born in South Africa to parents 0:04:39.600 --> 0:04:41.760 who I'm sure existed at some point, but I do 0:04:41.839 --> 0:04:44.400 not know you know anything else at all about them? Uh, 0:04:44.560 --> 0:04:47.760 not a lot of information on this guy's early life. Um, 0:04:47.920 --> 0:04:49.440 we do know that he went to college at the 0:04:49.480 --> 0:04:53.000 Queen's University in Northern Ireland and moved to Canada in 0:04:53.000 --> 0:04:56.240 the nineteen seventies to work as a doctor, and on paper, 0:04:56.400 --> 0:04:59.360 his career looked about as woken wonderful as it's possible 0:04:59.400 --> 0:05:02.920 to be. Norman founded the first sexual health clinic for 0:05:02.960 --> 0:05:06.280 schools in Ottawa. He was a very public and charismatic 0:05:06.360 --> 0:05:10.200 advocate for expanded sex education and reproductive medicine. He spent 0:05:10.240 --> 0:05:12.760 time driving around the Canadian capital and what he called 0:05:12.800 --> 0:05:19.320 a sex bus. Now it's pre internet, right, Yeah, it's 0:05:19.360 --> 0:05:21.800 pre internet because there's a bang bus in Florida I 0:05:21.920 --> 0:05:26.760 knew about. Yeah, this is very different from the bang bus. Um. 0:05:26.880 --> 0:05:29.040 Rather than being the set for a low budget porn 0:05:29.440 --> 0:05:32.640 the sex bus was a way for Dr Barwin to 0:05:32.680 --> 0:05:37.200 distribute pamphlets on sexual health. Many d walked into that bus. 0:05:37.240 --> 0:05:40.680 So this is not what. Don't go in there, man, 0:05:40.720 --> 0:05:47.680 They got reading stuffs, just paper. I love that the 0:05:47.720 --> 0:05:51.080 passers by uh that that we voiced in our episodes 0:05:51.080 --> 0:05:54.400 are always Southerners, even when we're talking about Ottawa. Yes, 0:05:54.520 --> 0:05:58.160 that is. I mean, to quote the comedian Jesse Case, 0:05:58.200 --> 0:06:01.320 who's Southern. He was like, I mean it sucks, but 0:06:01.440 --> 0:06:06.040 when I even when Southerners do a dumb voice, it's 0:06:06.080 --> 0:06:09.600 just a more Southern voice. And you're like, that's so true. 0:06:10.120 --> 0:06:12.799 You're doing the guy from the town over, Yes, exactly, 0:06:13.720 --> 0:06:17.000 the dumber guy in your neighborhood, dumb dogs. And you're like, 0:06:19.360 --> 0:06:21.560 I think King of the Hill is the ultimate example 0:06:21.600 --> 0:06:23.840 of that, because like every one of Hank's friends is 0:06:23.880 --> 0:06:26.440 a different sort of fake Southern voice that I would 0:06:26.440 --> 0:06:29.039 do based on somebody. I know. It's the it's my 0:06:29.240 --> 0:06:33.599 judge doing that. It's just him watching people in his alley, 0:06:33.640 --> 0:06:35.640 going like I can do all these voices. I think, 0:06:38.720 --> 0:06:42.440 uh so um yeah. Barwin, the Good Dr. Barwin was 0:06:42.480 --> 0:06:46.080 an early advocate for abortion rights. He also grew increasingly 0:06:46.120 --> 0:06:48.799 interested in finding ways to help single women and lesbian 0:06:48.839 --> 0:06:51.840 couples have babies, and over time this grew into an 0:06:51.880 --> 0:06:57.320 interest in fertility in general. Now artificial insemination. Billy Wayne 0:06:57.400 --> 0:06:59.800 traces its roots back to the seventeen hundreds, when a 0:07:00.000 --> 0:07:02.800 Gottish surgeon what other nationality would have been behind it? 0:07:03.160 --> 0:07:06.320 Named John Hunter impregnated a woman with her husband's sperm. 0:07:06.480 --> 0:07:09.119 According to the National Institutes of Health quote, a cloth 0:07:09.160 --> 0:07:13.120 merchant with severe hypospattius was advised to collect the seamen 0:07:13.160 --> 0:07:15.920 which escaped during coitus in a warmed syringe and inject 0:07:15.960 --> 0:07:19.280 the sample into the vagina. Now, hypospattius is a birth 0:07:19.320 --> 0:07:21.560 defect where the opening of your penis is on the 0:07:21.560 --> 0:07:23.880 bottom of the head rather than its normal location. So 0:07:23.920 --> 0:07:28.520 that's the first recorded artificial human insemination. But a clockmaker 0:07:28.640 --> 0:07:32.120 is that what she said? Uh? Yeah, a cloth merchant 0:07:32.800 --> 0:07:35.320 is the guy is the guy who like was having 0:07:35.320 --> 0:07:38.360 trouble knock and his wife. Doctor was like, the way 0:07:38.400 --> 0:07:40.440 I heard you say it was that they hired him 0:07:40.520 --> 0:07:42.360 to take the sample, and I was like, what a 0:07:42.400 --> 0:07:45.840 weird choice. No, no, no, no, that's the that was 0:07:45.880 --> 0:07:48.160 the client. John Hunter was just like, yeah, we just 0:07:48.160 --> 0:07:50.080 get to get you a warm syringe, fill it with 0:07:50.120 --> 0:07:54.560 com and use that as your penis. And he was right, yeah, 0:07:54.600 --> 0:07:57.640 it was right, Yeah, it makes sense. Yeah. So for 0:07:57.800 --> 0:08:00.440 most of the next couple of centuries, artificial and eimination 0:08:00.520 --> 0:08:03.440 was primarily the purview of farmers and mainly used on 0:08:03.560 --> 0:08:07.160 livestock like cows. Human beings did figure out how to 0:08:07.200 --> 0:08:10.040 successfully free sperm in order to keep them viable in 0:08:10.080 --> 0:08:12.880 about nineteen fifty three, but a lot of people thought 0:08:12.880 --> 0:08:15.080 it was a moral to do that with human sperm, 0:08:15.160 --> 0:08:17.920 and so it wasn't until the nineteen seventies that artificial 0:08:17.960 --> 0:08:21.520 insemination of human beings really took off as a practice 0:08:22.080 --> 0:08:25.520 and started to become very common. What happened that it 0:08:25.640 --> 0:08:29.520 became okay, I don't know, I think just enough old 0:08:29.520 --> 0:08:32.640 people died off, and like everyone else was like, oh, 0:08:32.679 --> 0:08:35.120 why do we give a shit about this? Seven everybody's 0:08:35.160 --> 0:08:40.320 on fucking cocaine, like whatever. Yeah, uh so. Dr Norman 0:08:40.360 --> 0:08:42.960 Barrwin then came of age as a doctor at a 0:08:42.960 --> 0:08:46.800 time when sort of the very first generation of professional 0:08:46.800 --> 0:08:49.320 fertility doctors were starting to become a thing. You know, 0:08:49.320 --> 0:08:52.320 there's been some before, but he was really with like 0:08:52.360 --> 0:08:54.559 the first wave of people who made it into kind 0:08:54.559 --> 0:08:57.080 of a mainstream profession. So he was very much on 0:08:57.120 --> 0:09:01.120 the cutting edge of this science. Tony Hawk, Yeah, like 0:09:01.160 --> 0:09:04.160 Tony Hawk. He's the Tony Hawk of using cold sperm 0:09:04.240 --> 0:09:08.120 to impregnate women whose husbands are having difficulties doing that 0:09:08.200 --> 0:09:12.960 for some reason. That's yeah, yep, yep, a shoot for something, 0:09:13.000 --> 0:09:15.720 I guess. Yeah, I mean Tony Hawk also has a 0:09:15.760 --> 0:09:19.640 weird cold sperm obsession, but we'll save that for the Yeah, 0:09:19.679 --> 0:09:21.480 and if you're true Tony Hawk Fane, you know what 0:09:21.480 --> 0:09:25.400 we're talking about. Oh yeah, very well aware. Now. Barwin 0:09:25.480 --> 0:09:28.119 quickly rose to become the president of the Canadian Fertility 0:09:28.240 --> 0:09:31.560 Society and eventually also the president of the Planned Parenthood 0:09:31.600 --> 0:09:35.080 Federation of Canada. Barwin worked as a professor of obstetrics 0:09:35.080 --> 0:09:37.760 and gynecology at the University of Ottawa and I also 0:09:37.840 --> 0:09:42.559 had a healthy career as a gynecologist. Yeah, so far, 0:09:42.679 --> 0:09:47.240 he's he's the realist doctor we've talked about, right, without 0:09:47.320 --> 0:09:53.600 a doubt. There's no there's no bleach. Uh, there's no yet. Yeah, 0:09:53.640 --> 0:09:56.160 he hasn't drowned trying to make them. It's like the 0:09:56.200 --> 0:09:58.320 opposite of what we've been talking about. So right now, 0:09:58.400 --> 0:10:01.080 I'm like, this guy is great. Yeah, right now, this 0:10:01.120 --> 0:10:05.280 guy does actually seem to be a great doctor. Um. 0:10:05.320 --> 0:10:08.000 And of course, uh, while he worked you know in 0:10:08.040 --> 0:10:10.000 a kind of wore a lot of hats as a 0:10:10.000 --> 0:10:14.400 medical professional, his real passion was increasingly fertility, and once 0:10:14.400 --> 0:10:16.640 he left the University of Ottawa, he devoted the bulk 0:10:16.679 --> 0:10:20.120 of his time to helping parents get pregnant. Dr Barwin 0:10:20.240 --> 0:10:23.480 was beloved by many of his patients. He was invested 0:10:23.520 --> 0:10:26.720 into the Order of Canada for his quote profound impact 0:10:26.840 --> 0:10:30.800 on both the biological and psychosocial aspects of women's productive health. 0:10:31.360 --> 0:10:34.119 He won the Barber cass Begs Award for Women's Reproductive 0:10:34.200 --> 0:10:37.280 Rights and the Queen's Golden Jubilee Medal for his pioneering 0:10:37.320 --> 0:10:44.800 success and helping women conceive uh. In fact, Dr Norman 0:10:45.200 --> 0:10:48.120 Barwin developed such a reputation for his ability to help 0:10:48.160 --> 0:10:51.360 infertile couples make babies that his patients started giving him 0:10:51.400 --> 0:10:57.120 a nickname, the baby God. Oh wow, I'm sure that Yeah, 0:10:58.120 --> 0:11:00.240 you know, let's just back off that one. It's just 0:11:00.520 --> 0:11:06.599 that is a weird thing to call someone like like I, 0:11:06.800 --> 0:11:09.400 I yeah, I don't say, well, like you said like 0:11:10.400 --> 0:11:12.600 one or two people like hey, the baby got over 0:11:12.600 --> 0:11:17.079 there and then it catching on is very strange. Yeah, 0:11:17.360 --> 0:11:20.080 Like if I had an intractable health issue, like say 0:11:20.160 --> 0:11:23.480 I had a U T I and like, yeah, I 0:11:23.520 --> 0:11:26.600 couldn't get it fixed for like years until like I 0:11:26.640 --> 0:11:29.320 finally found a doctor who was like able to deal 0:11:29.360 --> 0:11:32.640 with the problem. I wouldn't call him the urinary tract God. 0:11:33.240 --> 0:11:35.640 That would be bizarre. That would that would seem weird 0:11:35.720 --> 0:11:38.600 and not like a compliment. No, no, And he would 0:11:38.600 --> 0:11:41.960 be like, hey, let's let's don't you shouldn't say that. 0:11:42.040 --> 0:11:44.280 You don't say that, you should say that. I'll give 0:11:44.320 --> 0:11:47.080 you another one if you if you never say that again. 0:11:47.920 --> 0:11:51.679 But doctor, Yeah, he makes babies. And you're like like 0:11:51.800 --> 0:11:54.040 as like, yeah, if your wife came home, she's like, 0:11:54.040 --> 0:11:55.920 I don't want to go see the baby God, and 0:11:55.960 --> 0:11:58.360 you're like, hmmm, I want to go with you. I'm 0:11:58.400 --> 0:12:00.920 gonna go with you. Yeah, I'm I'm gonna check out 0:12:00.920 --> 0:12:04.839 this guy. Yeah. Yeah. And they spoiler they absolutely should 0:12:04.840 --> 0:12:07.120 have been checking out this guy, because I think that's 0:12:07.120 --> 0:12:10.120 what they called Sean Camp was the baby got the 0:12:10.160 --> 0:12:13.640 baby God. He just had a lot of kids. Yeah, 0:12:14.360 --> 0:12:16.960 that's fair. Yeah, yeah, they should have called him Doc 0:12:17.080 --> 0:12:20.880 stork Um. That was good. That's good. That's better, that's better. 0:12:20.960 --> 0:12:23.560 And that's not creepy. That's like homie and like kind 0:12:23.559 --> 0:12:27.960 of warm. You know. Baby God is is creepy. It 0:12:28.080 --> 0:12:32.439 is creepy, like you too, Yeah, he can kill your baby. 0:12:32.480 --> 0:12:35.480 It makes me think of uh, from my fellow nerds 0:12:35.520 --> 0:12:38.600 out there, one of the best monsters in the Dungeons 0:12:38.600 --> 0:12:42.320 and Dragons, like third edition Monster Manual was this giant, 0:12:42.400 --> 0:12:48.319 hovering aborded god fetus. It's very cool monster. Um. Anyway, 0:12:48.360 --> 0:12:51.720 that's that's that's a reference for the nine people uh 0:12:51.920 --> 0:12:56.200 listening to this podcast right now. I know, I got 0:12:56.280 --> 0:12:58.320 I just kind of zoned out and then I zoned 0:12:58.360 --> 0:13:00.760 back in when you said aboarded god atis where I'm like, 0:13:00.760 --> 0:13:03.160 what are you guys doing over there? That's what reels 0:13:03.160 --> 0:13:05.840 them all back in is aborted god fetus. Hold on, 0:13:05.880 --> 0:13:09.520 hold on, say that again. Gods can have abortions, Yes, yes, 0:13:09.559 --> 0:13:12.360 they can. Yeah, and when they have an abortion, that 0:13:12.440 --> 0:13:16.760 abortion is also a god. That is the problem is 0:13:16.960 --> 0:13:19.800 not a happy one where abortions become God's because you 0:13:19.840 --> 0:13:25.400 can't get son of a bitch. So the baby God 0:13:25.679 --> 0:13:28.520 was the Dr Norman Barwin that the vast, vast majority 0:13:28.559 --> 0:13:31.920 of people in Canada knew up until quite recently, and 0:13:31.920 --> 0:13:34.400 to most of them he was considered a hero. But 0:13:34.440 --> 0:13:36.920 there were some signs early on that not all was 0:13:37.000 --> 0:13:40.600 well in Dr Barwin's practice in Nive. He made a 0:13:40.720 --> 0:13:44.640 mistake and gave a couple the wrong sperm for their child. Now, 0:13:44.760 --> 0:13:48.440 considering how new the science of fertility was in nineteen 0:13:48.480 --> 0:13:51.920 eighty five, that Air made relatively little impact in his career. 0:13:52.080 --> 0:13:55.800 Everybody's gonna screw up, even groundbreaking physicians. You can't make 0:13:55.840 --> 0:13:58.560 babies without spilling a little bit of spine. I mean 0:13:58.600 --> 0:14:02.520 when you said it, I was like, I mean, whatever, Yeah, 0:14:02.760 --> 0:14:06.200 everyone's gonna sunk up. Like and you, you know, you 0:14:06.240 --> 0:14:09.199 consider other doctor mistakes were like a guy dies on 0:14:09.240 --> 0:14:12.800 the operating table. A baby that's slightly different from the 0:14:12.800 --> 0:14:18.240 baby you intended to have, not a big deal, right yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, jump, 0:14:20.400 --> 0:14:25.360 this one's way better. Yeah yeah, we both have exzemo. 0:14:25.440 --> 0:14:30.240 This baby is gonna do great, fantastic. So in the 0:14:30.320 --> 0:14:33.440 mid nineteen nineties, though, it happened again. A lesbian couple 0:14:33.520 --> 0:14:36.120 sued Dr Barwin for giving them semen other than the 0:14:36.200 --> 0:14:42.320 semen that they had selected from their chosen donor. Yeah yeah, Now. 0:14:42.360 --> 0:14:45.600 According to the Toronto Star quote, that incident was designated 0:14:45.680 --> 0:14:48.160 a prior error in the agreed statement of facts presented 0:14:48.200 --> 0:14:50.960 to the panel Thursday. On that occasion. Barwin was notified 0:14:51.000 --> 0:14:53.200 of this error by the College of Physicians and Surgeons 0:14:53.240 --> 0:14:55.280 of Ontario and states that he took some steps to 0:14:55.400 --> 0:14:57.520 endeavor to ensure that no such errors would occur in 0:14:57.600 --> 0:15:01.240 his practice in the future. So again, two errors, you know, 0:15:02.240 --> 0:15:05.040 in like a decade, really not a big deal. But 0:15:05.520 --> 0:15:09.400 the errors kept happening twice more during the late nineteen nineties, 0:15:09.920 --> 0:15:13.040 and since Dr Barwin inseimilated a lot of ladies, he 0:15:13.200 --> 0:15:16.000 was still generally seen by most people is incredibly good 0:15:16.080 --> 0:15:17.800 at it, although it was now clear that there were 0:15:17.840 --> 0:15:21.480 some issues in his practice. That said, his high success 0:15:21.600 --> 0:15:23.440 rate meant he would still be the guy that you'd 0:15:23.480 --> 0:15:26.720 go to when other fertility doctors couldn't get you knocked up, 0:15:27.320 --> 0:15:29.400 So the mistakes kind of got swept under the rug. 0:15:29.680 --> 0:15:33.280 Nobody thought anything sinister was going on. Dr Barwin continued 0:15:33.320 --> 0:15:36.200 his career as a celebrated physician. In two thousand three, 0:15:36.320 --> 0:15:39.359 during an interview, he told a reporter that accidentally inseminating 0:15:39.400 --> 0:15:42.760 a patient with the wrong sperm was his quote worst nightmare, 0:15:43.360 --> 0:15:48.800 which you know, yeah, now a decade later that nightmare 0:15:48.840 --> 0:15:51.320 burst onto the public stage. Like, I don't know, I 0:15:51.320 --> 0:15:54.520 should have made like an analogy to to like, you know, 0:15:54.640 --> 0:15:57.720 water breaking or something, but I didn't think too and 0:15:58.080 --> 0:16:00.960 I can't properly word it now. I think we're okay 0:16:01.000 --> 0:16:03.520 without it, you know what I mean? So yeah, I 0:16:03.600 --> 0:16:06.320 think like burst onto the stage like a bunch of 0:16:06.320 --> 0:16:09.960 amniotic fluid. That good? Yeah, or just yeah because and 0:16:10.080 --> 0:16:15.440 here's the thing, like just slowly took its time coming out. Yeah, yeah, 0:16:15.800 --> 0:16:19.560 that's that's that's really usually have they in my experience, 0:16:19.640 --> 0:16:22.960 like they're not like, hey, I'm here, They're like yeah, yeah, 0:16:23.000 --> 0:16:25.360 they kind of don't want to leave, which considering the world, 0:16:25.480 --> 0:16:28.280 makes sense. Oh yeah, No, I'm still every time I 0:16:28.360 --> 0:16:30.920 think about him, like it seems like that we started 0:16:30.960 --> 0:16:34.160 off in the best bond. Yeah. Every time I have 0:16:34.280 --> 0:16:37.880 to wake up, I am reminded of how difficult it 0:16:38.000 --> 0:16:40.480 must be to be a baby. You down and you 0:16:40.640 --> 0:16:43.840 feel your belly out and you're like, damn it, goddamnit, 0:16:44.840 --> 0:16:48.840 still not there. So. Dr Barwin was found to have 0:16:49.000 --> 0:16:51.240 mixed up the sperm that had created four of the 0:16:51.320 --> 0:16:54.600 babies born from his clinic. According to the Star Quote, 0:16:54.880 --> 0:16:57.200 at least four of those babies aren't the biological result 0:16:57.240 --> 0:16:59.960 of their fathers or the sperm donor designated by their 0:17:00.040 --> 0:17:02.840 mothers because of mistakes at Barwin's clinic experts, dispatched to 0:17:02.840 --> 0:17:05.760 review procedures at the facility, could isolate no evident reasons 0:17:05.800 --> 0:17:07.920 for the mix up. Those children will never know the 0:17:08.040 --> 0:17:10.760 male side of their parentage, thus left forever ignorant of 0:17:10.800 --> 0:17:14.760 crucial medical history details. So one of those babies had 0:17:14.800 --> 0:17:17.440 grown into a man by two thousand thirteen, and he 0:17:17.560 --> 0:17:21.159 testified against Dr Barwin and had to essentially explain what 0:17:21.359 --> 0:17:23.320 damage had been done to him as the result of 0:17:23.359 --> 0:17:26.119 the fact that nobody knew who his biological father might be. 0:17:26.760 --> 0:17:29.160 The twenty five year old asked, why do I look 0:17:29.240 --> 0:17:31.000 like this? Who do I look like? I know I 0:17:31.080 --> 0:17:32.920 look like my mother, But what about the other side? 0:17:33.119 --> 0:17:35.720 I'll never know? Yes, I'm grateful I'm here, but there's 0:17:35.760 --> 0:17:38.720 the other side, another story. I don't know my medical history, 0:17:38.760 --> 0:17:41.200 and that's kind of scary. It's like, yeah, this is 0:17:41.240 --> 0:17:45.720 a real problem, you know. Uh. And these funk ups 0:17:45.800 --> 0:17:48.080 at this point, by like isn't thirteen were bad enough 0:17:48.119 --> 0:17:51.280 that Dr Barwin was finally punished, albeit with the medical 0:17:51.320 --> 0:17:53.600 equivalent of a slap on the wrist. He was found 0:17:53.640 --> 0:17:57.240 guilty of unprofessional conduct and incompetence, and his medical license 0:17:57.320 --> 0:18:00.400 was suspended for sixty days. He also had to thirty 0:18:01.040 --> 0:18:03.919 dollars in legal fees. The young man who testified against 0:18:04.000 --> 0:18:07.000 him was not satisfied by this justice just a two 0:18:07.040 --> 0:18:09.680 month band, He said afterwards, I think you should completely 0:18:09.760 --> 0:18:13.080 lose his license. So I don't know at that point, 0:18:13.240 --> 0:18:16.200 you know, Uh, I mean to be honest, if I'm like, 0:18:16.359 --> 0:18:18.320 if I'm like trying to evaluate it fairly and I 0:18:18.359 --> 0:18:20.480 don't know the rest of the story, five or six 0:18:20.680 --> 0:18:24.240 errors in like forty years, it doesn't seem that bad. 0:18:24.440 --> 0:18:26.640 I don't. That's where I'm at right now too. It's like, yeah, 0:18:26.680 --> 0:18:29.119 I just I feel like, I don't know. Have you 0:18:29.160 --> 0:18:34.280 played baseball? It's mostly years. It's hard. Yeah, everybody sucks 0:18:34.320 --> 0:18:36.480 up more than that, Like you, I know, like we 0:18:36.640 --> 0:18:40.159 hold doctors to a higher standard, but still well in 0:18:40.320 --> 0:18:45.840 the theory we do. But I'm completely with you on 0:18:45.960 --> 0:18:49.119 this where it's like I just feel like he's and 0:18:49.240 --> 0:18:52.040 when he sucks up, you still get a baby. You 0:18:52.119 --> 0:18:57.440 still got a baby. Yeah, there's not alligators coming out 0:18:57.480 --> 0:19:01.239 of women's like like woombsy, Like he's not sucking up 0:19:01.320 --> 0:19:05.320 that bad. He gave you just not exactly what you wanted, 0:19:06.119 --> 0:19:10.720 which feels like what God does anyway in theory, that's 0:19:10.800 --> 0:19:17.640 just having a kid. Yeah. Now, most doctors probably would 0:19:17.680 --> 0:19:20.399 have gotten harsher punishments than a sixty days suspension of 0:19:20.440 --> 0:19:23.880 their license, but the court took Dr Barrwin's sterling career 0:19:23.960 --> 0:19:27.280 into account, his pro choice advocacy, his groundbreaking work in 0:19:27.359 --> 0:19:31.320 reconstructive surgery for transgender people, and his many awards. All 0:19:31.400 --> 0:19:34.760 these mitigating factors saved him from losing his medical license, 0:19:35.359 --> 0:19:37.960 but they did not save him from attracting greater scrutiny 0:19:38.040 --> 0:19:41.080 from Canadian journalists. In the wake of his sentencing, The 0:19:41.200 --> 0:19:44.200 Star published a deep dive into the doctor. The title 0:19:44.280 --> 0:19:46.560 of their article is one of my favorite titles in 0:19:46.720 --> 0:19:51.600 journalism history, Wrong Sperm, Dr Barrwin took Shortcuts and career 0:19:51.760 --> 0:20:00.080 and racist too Wow races. Yeah. Yeah. The reporters the 0:20:00.119 --> 0:20:03.560 Star revealed that Dr Barwin was also an inveterate marathon cheater, 0:20:03.640 --> 0:20:05.560 which we're going to talk more about in a little Why. 0:20:07.520 --> 0:20:10.920 I just my jaw dropped, because that's just like why, 0:20:11.480 --> 0:20:13.600 I don't know that. Yeah, that's not one to cheat 0:20:13.680 --> 0:20:16.359 on You're just like, yeah, anyone can cheating, is not 0:20:17.160 --> 0:20:20.720 That's hilarious. I think it all makes sense when we 0:20:20.840 --> 0:20:24.240 get through the rest of this guy's backstory because it 0:20:24.320 --> 0:20:26.399 all it all seems actually kind of pretty much in 0:20:26.560 --> 0:20:29.919 line to me. But yeah, it's it's quite a title. 0:20:30.200 --> 0:20:33.680 What do they call him? Wrong sperm doctor? That is 0:20:33.760 --> 0:20:36.280 a good I mean, if you're gonna go with baby 0:20:36.320 --> 0:20:38.560 God for a while, I think wrong sperm doctor is 0:20:38.600 --> 0:20:43.560 fitting when they figure you out. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I 0:20:43.880 --> 0:20:46.040 love thinking of the editorial meeting where they're like, how 0:20:46.080 --> 0:20:48.040 do we get across that this is a doctor who 0:20:48.119 --> 0:20:51.120 put the wrong sperm in people? In the fewest words possible, 0:20:51.400 --> 0:20:54.200 what about wrong sperm doctor? And they all laughed and 0:20:54.240 --> 0:20:57.399 then they were like, let's do it. Yeah, it's Canada 0:20:58.160 --> 0:21:04.880 up there now, Billy Wayne. You know what's as good 0:21:06.160 --> 0:21:13.240 as calling Dr Barrwin the wrong sperm doctor? This transition 0:21:13.280 --> 0:21:16.480 to ads, it was smooth. I was like, yeah, like, 0:21:16.600 --> 0:21:19.600 is this silk? Are we on silk right now? You 0:21:19.720 --> 0:21:22.440 barely noticed it, didn't You almost slid right by? Yeah? 0:21:22.480 --> 0:21:25.639 I thought we were still talking. Slid right by like 0:21:25.800 --> 0:21:28.440 one of the baby gods babies sliding out of a 0:21:28.520 --> 0:21:32.240 birth canal. Say you still don't what you wanted? Yep, 0:21:32.320 --> 0:21:35.280 I did? I think that should have been You'll get 0:21:35.560 --> 0:21:37.560 you might not get what you want, but you'll get 0:21:37.600 --> 0:21:41.160 what you want. And speaking of getting what you want 0:21:41.680 --> 0:21:51.679 products and we're back. That started out as a rough 0:21:51.760 --> 0:21:54.160 transition to ads, but I think I think we found 0:21:54.240 --> 0:21:57.439 the right transition to right. It felt right, It felt right. 0:21:58.080 --> 0:21:59.680 It's kind of like, Hey, you don't always get the 0:21:59.760 --> 0:22:02.359 baby be you'd planned to have, but you always get 0:22:02.440 --> 0:22:04.680 the baby you're supposed to have, the you're supposed to have, 0:22:05.640 --> 0:22:08.840 unless your baby's hitler. Then you know. I still think 0:22:09.040 --> 0:22:10.719 that there was a couple that was the baby they 0:22:10.760 --> 0:22:13.560 were supposed to have them. Yep, that's how destiny works, 0:22:14.000 --> 0:22:20.680 I think so. Um. Yeah, So, reporters with the Star 0:22:20.800 --> 0:22:23.760 found out that Dr Barwin was a marathon cheater, which yeah, again, 0:22:23.800 --> 0:22:25.720 we're gonna get to it a little bit. They also 0:22:25.800 --> 0:22:29.440 found out that, despite being a professor of gynecology uh 0:22:29.600 --> 0:22:33.520 and a practicing gynecologist, Dr Barwin was not in fact 0:22:33.640 --> 0:22:37.800 a gynecologist. Uh yeah, or at least he was not 0:22:37.920 --> 0:22:42.600 a Canadian gynecologist. He had been a gynecologist in Northern 0:22:42.720 --> 0:22:45.479 Ireland and when he'd moved to Canada, his employer had 0:22:45.560 --> 0:22:47.639 let him do the job with the understanding that in 0:22:47.800 --> 0:22:50.199