The Curious Case of Cramblett v. Midwest Sperm Bank: Centering a Political Ontology of Race and Disability for Liberatory Thought

Abstract

ABSTRACT This article explores a recent legal case wherein the category of “wrongful birth”—a negligence claim against a physician who failed to adequately inform a pregnant individual of the likelihood of their child having a congenital disorder, birth defect, or other disability—was used to describe the birth of a black/mixed-race child. In this case, a white woman was inseminated and impregnated with the sperm of a black man instead of the white man's sperm she had purchased. In examining this case, I argue for the liberatory import of placing race and disability in a comparative frame that relies on a method of juxtaposition and centers a political ontology of race and disability.