Just by spitting into a tube, Bert Miller’s entire life changed.
On Nov. 25, 2016 — a date Miller was able to recall with ease over eight years later — Miller applied for an Ancestry.com DNA test.
When several unknown half-siblings were popping up on his family tree, however, Miller was at a loss.
“At first, you think it’s just a mistake,” Miller said in an interview with The Daily Iowan. “Then you start asking questions.”
After consulting other family members, his newly-found half siblings, and eventually having his sister Nancy Duffner take the same Ancestry.com DNA test, Miller said all signs pointed to a single person: Dr. John H. Randall.
In 2024, Bert Miller and Nancy Duffner filed suit against the state of Iowa after allegedly discovering their biological father was Dr. John H. Randall — the University of Iowa’s former Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology chair who provided fertility treatment for Miller and Duffner’s parents in the 1950s.
Dr. John H. Randall headed the UI OB-GYN department from April 1952 until he died in April 1959. Over that seven-year period, court documents state Randall provided Donna and Bert Junior Miller fertility treatment, resulting in the birth of three children in 1954, 1956, and 1958.
“You find out that the person who raised you, that you always thought was your father, was not your father — not your biological father,” Miller said. “It’s just, it’s devastating. It’s heartbreaking, it’s confusing, it’s embarrassing. It takes your whole paradigm of who you are and where you’re from and just explodes it.”
Miller and Duffner later learned their youngest brother, Randy Miller, was not related to Randall. He was, however, named after the doctor.
“Randy is named after Dr. Randall because they were so grateful to this ‘wonderful man,’” Duffner said.
Now, Bert Miller and Duffner are left to deal with the fallout. With both of their parents and Dr. Randall dead, the two have been searching for answers regarding their alleged medical history.
“The man who raised me will always be my father, the most wonderful man in the world. But I have to also learn to live with the fact that my biological father was a man who did this to women and had that kind of ego,” Duffner said. “It’s now a part of my makeup, and if I could reach in and pull out the parts that are him and get rid of them, I would.”
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Both Miller and Duffner attempted to sue the state for compensatory damages, statutory damages amounting to $200,000, court costs, and attorney fees. Two separate lawsuits pertaining to Randall — Stoughton vs. the State of Iowa and Bright vs. the State of Iowa — have also been filed.
In 2022, before these cases came to light, the Iowa legislature passed Iowa Code Section 714I, dubbed the Fraud in Assisted Reproduction Act, or FARA. Among other regulations, the act states medical practitioners or facilities cannot use human reproductive material “other than that to which the patient expressly consented in writing.”
The question posed to Iowa’s Supreme Court inquires if the violation of this law can be charged ex post facto, or in retrospect.
After oral arguments on Feb. 12, the Iowa Supreme Court ruled against the Millers, dismissing the case entirely.
“FARA has no express retroactivity provision imposing liability for fertility fraud predating its enactment,” the unanimous opinion written by Justice Thomas Waterman reads. “Without such a provision, statutes creating new substantive liabilities are presumed to operate only prospectively, not to conduct occurring before the law goes into effect.”
However, the Miller family is still searching for answers.
“While the Iowa Supreme Court has ruled, the fight is not over. We hope that there can be a legislative fix so that people such as our clients still have a shot at justice. These fertility fraud cases are about more than financial compensation for our clients,” Mike Biderman, partner at Hayes Lorenzen Lawyers, PLC who represented the Miller family, wrote in an email to the DI. “Our firm remains committed to helping our clients in their search for justice and answers.”
Outside of the medical questions, Duffner and Miller also said the whole discovery has led to personal identity questions for their entire family.
Duffner shared a story about her aunt — Bert Junior Miller’s sister — and how her mother would always say “Nancy, you are just like your aunt.”
Now, when Duffner looks at photos of her aunt, she doesn’t know what to think.
“All of those stories aren’t valid anymore,” Duffner said, holding back tears. “When you take away a person’s stories, it’s a pretty hollow shell that’s left.”