Authorities said that a New York fertility specialist who was accused of using sperm from his own body to impregnate a number of patients, died at the weekend after the plane he was flying, which was hand-built, fell apart and crashed.
Morris Wortman, 72 years old, from Rochester was a passenger on the experimental plane that crashed in Orleans County Sunday. According to the sheriff, Earl Luce Jr. of Brockport was also killed.
Tuesday, the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) continued to investigate the crash of an aircraft identified as a Wittman W-5 Buttercup plane.
In a Monday news release, Sheriff Christopher Bourke stated that preliminary findings indicated “the wings of aircraft detached from the fuselage” and fell in an orchard. The fuselage continued to the west for an additional 1,000-1,500 yards before it crashed.
Wortman, a prominent OB/GYN from western New York, was frequently the target of protests against abortion. In 2021 , the daughter of a patient of his who had become pregnant in the 1980s sued him. The lawsuit claimed that the doctor used his own sperm, while telling the patient it was a local student. The lawsuit said that the doctor secretly used his own sperm while telling the patient the donor was a local medical student.
Her medical malpractice lawsuit stated that the daughter found out about Wortman’s donation after DNA genealogy revealed she had nine half-siblings. In the civil lawsuit filed in Monroe County Court about Wortman’s first wife’s daughter, it was revealed that follow-up testing of DNA with her confirmed the genetic connection.
Wortman didn’t comment when the lawsuit was filed.
