InMaricopa
DNA test reveals a father â and a family
Mike Otis is among the offspring of a fertility doctor who secretly impregnated patients
Itâs said life can turn on a dime. For Mike Otis, it changed on a $69 DNA test.
Otis, a retired technical writer, did what thousands of people do every year â he took a genetic test to find out more about his family heritage. The results led to a shocking discovery and a prominent role in the recent HBO documentary, âBaby God.â
Otis, 71, and his wife came to Maricopa in 2017, buying their retirement home in Homestead. Thatâs about the same time he found out about, as he puts it, âmy nefarious beginnings.â
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Since the advent of at-home DNA testing and the proliferation of online genealogy websites where, with the click of a mouse, you could be connected with family members you didn t even know you had, fertility fraud has increasingly served as a narrative device on scripted television.
Sometimes it s as a punchline; there s that third season turn in Bored to Death when it s revealed that Jonathan Ames (Jason Schwartzman) potential girlfriend, Rose (Isla Fisher), is actually his half-sister. Their shared biological father was a man who ran a scammy fertility clinic where he just provided patients with his own sperm, despite telling them that it came from more impressive donors.