A Citizen Petition is a formal request that anyone can file asking the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to change a regulation or take (or stop taking) some official action. In 2016, donor‑conceived adult Nicholas Isel used that process to ask the FDA to require longer retention of sperm‑donor medical records. The FDA’s denial has become the focal point of a new federal lawsuit.
Filed in the Illinois Northern District Court on July 22, 2026,the lawsuit serves as the next step in Isel’s battle to compel the federal government to force “regulated establishments” to preserve the relevant medical records for donors of reproductive sperm or oocytes (eggs) for 50 years, as opposed to the 10 years currently required under 21 C.F.R. 1271.55.
Descended From a Long Line of Geniuses?
Isel, who was one of the children conceived by a sperm bank that claims all its anonymous donors were “geniuses,” argues in his suit that the FDA’s current policy allows a genetic father’s medical information to be destroyed before donor-conceived children reach the age of majority or are even aware of their parentage (or, as in Isel’s case, both). The five-count complaint also alleges that FDA’s interpretation of its record-retention rule denies offspring of donors access to crucial medical information from 50% of their genetic makeup and causes “irreparable harm in an arbitrary and capricious manner” and constitutes an “abuse of discretion.”
The lawsuit seeks a temporary restraining order and preliminary and permanent injunctive relief against further destruction of biological donors’ Relevant Medical Record sets, along with an order requiring the FDA to commence a rulemaking process.
Isel argues that the code governing Human Cells, Tissues, and Cellular and Tissue-Based Products (HCT/Ps) is being used by the FDA to unfairly discriminate against donor-conceived individuals.
Regardless of the outcome, it’s too late for Isel to recover his donor’s medical information, which was eradicated in the 1990s. The suffering he encountered from his own mental health issues is compelling him to continue his fight to contact the others conceived by “Donor Coral 36” to alert them and see if any shared demons are genetic in nature.
Okay, But It Still Sounds Like Eugenics
The “Nobel Baby” tag was attached to children conceived by sperm donors from the Repository for Germinal Choice, a clinic created by Robert Graham in 1980. His original intent was to create a genetic “Genius Factory” by accepting only donors who were Nobel laureates, but a lack of qualified (or interested) candidates led to frequent criteria adjustments and loosenings, according to later reporting. Whether his attempts to breed geniuses actually worked is unknown, but scorn among the scientific community for his efforts included “winning” a satirical “Ig Nobel” award for biology in 1991.
Under federal code, FDA-regulated establishments collecting and providing sperm donations must keep “relevant medical records” on their donors for a minimum of ten years. This includes a medical history interview, the living donor's medical history, relevant social behavior (with regard to actions that may increase the risk of communicable diseases), a physical examination of the living donor, and any pertinent laboratory test results.
It’s important to note that Isel’s suit is not about determining Donor Coral 36’s actual identity, but rather about extending how long donor medical records are preserved and ensuring donor-conceived people can access those records as part of their own medical history. While donor anonymity remains a feature of many programs, the complaint focuses on record-retention and access to donor medical records under HIPAA and related state laws. It does not directly challenge anonymity itself. Isel didn’t discover that he was donor-conceived until he was 16 years old, years after the Repository for Germinal Choice had destroyed his genetic father’s information (and closed the clinic’s doors in 1999, two years after Graham’s death).
Why Isel Argues a 10-Year Retention Rule Fails Donor-Conceived Children
Four of the counts in Isel’s lawsuit claim violations of the APA by the FDA, including Abuse of Agency Discretion and Equal Protection. A fifth count seeks to stop the currently legal destruction of donor records after 10 years and to begin a proper FDA response-to-Citizen-Petition process that he hopes will lead to a 50-year retention period instead.
While the FDA is responsible for reviewing Citizen Petitions, Isel spread some of the blame around to other members of the federal government. President Donald J. Trump and Secretary of Health & Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr. are also named as defendants, as are FDA officials Kyle Diamantas, Grace Graham (no relation), Olivia Ziolkowski, and Karim Mikhail, all sued in their official capacities as current officeholders and successors to prior officials.
