In 2019, Fox debuted “Almost Family,” a show about three women who learned they were all conceived by a fertility doctor who used his own sperm for more than 100 patients. The problem with the show is that it was meant to be a family comedy, in which the doctor, Leon Bechley (played by Timothy Hutton) is positioned as a well-meaning if misguided father figure. Unsurprisingly, victims of Donald Cline’s medical malpractice didn’t take too kindly to it, according to The Daily Beast.
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Julie Manes, who was conceived by Cline’s sperm, thought the show made light of what she believes is medical rape and sexual assault. In the show, one of Bechley’s children moonlights as his defense lawyer and works to have Bechley’s sexual assault charge dropped. One of his “children” even calls him dad.
Many of Cline’s “children” held a joint viewing of “Almost Family,” and some thought it didn’t accurately reflect their experiences and feelings with discovering their genetic origins, according to The Daily Beast. What was particularly off-putting was that Bechley’s excuses for his fertility fraud mirrored Cline’s. Bechley was eager to create a miracle for his female patients and framed his insemination as a good deed, per the Indianapolis Star. According to The Atlantic, a friend of Cline’s wrote a letter to the judge in his defense and similarly framed him as a caring individual who wanted to “put his patients first.”
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