INDIANAPOLIS — An Indiana fertility doctor, Dr. Donald Cline, is accused of impregnating patients with his own sperm without their consent. When the story broke last September, he was accused of fathering up to 16 children. Now he’s believed to have fathered 27 children.

WXIN’s Angela Ganote conducted a lengthy investigation into the case. Cline confessed to Ganote that he used his own sperm. He told Ganote he believed he was helping families conceive who could not bear children on their own.

When law enforcement questioned Cline, however, he denied all accusations. Cline was subsequently charged with two felony counts of obstruction of justice.

If Cline is convicted, it wouldn’t be the first time a fertility doctor was charged with using his own sperm on non-consenting patients.

Back in 1992, the New York Times reported that Virginia infertility specialist Dr. Cecil B. Jacobson was convicted on “52 counts of fraud and perjury for artificially inseminating unwitting patients with his own sperm and for telling them they were pregnant when they were not.” DNA tests confirmed that Jacobson fathered 15 children. He was accused of fathering up to 75 children.

Cline retired from his practice in 2009, and he has entered a plea of not guilty.