Inside Durban fertility specialist’s 40-year sperm secret

12 August 2018 - 00:00 By TANIA BROUGHTON
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A Durban fertility doctor was the sperm donor for some of his clients.
A Durban fertility doctor was the sperm donor for some of his clients.
Image: 123RF / Thelightwriter

More than 40 years after his suicide, the shocking secret of Durban fertility expert Norman “Tony” Walker has emerged —  he was himself the father of at least five of the hundreds of children he helped to conceive.

The pioneering fertility doctor who operated the clinic in the 1950s and ’60s could have used his own sperm in many other artificial insemination procedures, say three women and two men whose DNA proves he is their father.

Now “Tony’s Babies”, four of whom met for the first time in Australia in July, have gone public in the hope of finding other “diblings” — donor-sperm siblings — conceived through the clinic.

They believe that not all those who used Walker’s clinic — including couples who were unable to conceive naturally — were aware that the doctor used his own sperm in fertility treatments.

The remarkable story of how the five found each other begins with an astrologer’s warning to an author conceived at Walker’s clinic, and spans four continents.

Walker committed suicide in 1977 at the age of 62, and the children he had with his wife, Molly, have distanced themselves from the diblings. 

Said one the diblings: “I am guessing there are lots of us out there, most of whom would be totally unaware of their [true] paternity. This story … may help my yet undiscovered siblings to find some answers if they are searching for explanations about their identity and paternity.” 

Read the full story in the Sunday Times.


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