Cecil Byran Jacobson (October 2, 1936 – March 5, 2021) was an American former fertility doctor who used his own sperm to impregnate his patients without informing them. Jacobson was born in Salt Lake City, Utah. A graduate of Brown University, he became a researcher at George Washington University, but had no specialist training in infertility medicine. Baboon impregnation In the 1960s, Jacobson, who was Chief of the Reproductive Genetics Unit at George Washington University Medical School, claimed that he had impregnated a male baboon; he had supposedly implanted his sperm into a female baboon’s abdominal cavity. He claimed that he had terminated the pregnancy after four months, but never published his results in scientific publications. False pregnancies In the 1980s, Jacobson operated a reproductive genetics center in Fairfax County, Virginia. He specialized in treating women who had difficulty getting pregnant, or problems carrying a pregnancy to term. One form of treatment was to inject patients, before and after conception, with the hormone hCG (commonly used as a parenteral fertility medication and a hormone normally released during pregnancy), and patients who had been unable to conceive with other treatments reported success under Jacobson's care. The pregnancies progressed normally through the early stages: standard pregnancy tests were positive and patients' bodies began to undergo changes associated with pregnancy. Jacobson performed ultrasounds, identifying a fetus in the grainy image. Around the third month, Jacobson would report that the fetus had died. In fact, these patients were never pregnant, and the bodily changes were a reaction to the hCG. The pregnancy tests were inevitably false positives because the tests determined pregnancy by the presence of hCG. During Jacobson's criminal trial, experts examined the ultrasound photographs, and reported that the purported "fetuses" were actually nearby organs or fecal matter. Nevertheless, other patients were successful in becoming pregnant and having children. While some patients were uncomfortable with Jacobson's manner, and began to distrust him, other patients gave him credit for successful treatment. Paternity In 1989, suspicious former patients tipped off a local television station, which investigated and reported on the false pregnancies. Jacobson was sued by numerous patients. Federal prosecutors charged Jacobson with perjury (for false testimony during the civil proceedings) and mail and wire fraud (for the use of the letters and the telephone system as part of his fraudulent practice). During the course of the criminal investigation, another type of fraud came to