Fertility procedures in the eye of an ethical storm

April 13, 1996
Web posted at: 10:25 a.m. EDT

LOS ANGELES (CNN) -- For many couples desperate to have children, expensive fertility procedures are a tantalizing prospect, a magical wand that can make their wish come true. But some patients are discovering that in the fertility field, ethics can be a quick casualty.

The University of California at Irvine (UCI) is in the midst of a legal battle over alleged medical malpractices in its now-closed fertility clinic.

Clinic doctors were accused of stealing the eggs of women who were undergoing routine surgeries to diagnose reproductive problems, then implanting them in other women, some of whom became pregnant.

"We often get ahead of ourselves technologically ... And the ethics; we're still wrestling with those kinds of difficult questions," said Paul Silverman of UCI.

Former UCI patient Debra Challender says she was one of those cheated by the clinic. "The records show that three embryos were given to another woman and, as a result, twins were born," she said.

Challender has filed suit against UCI and Dr. Ricardo Asch, who performed the procedure. He has since fled to Mexico City to avoid possible arrest.

Asch says his job was to perform the procedure, not to take care of the eggs. "I feel I am found as the scapegoat or the fall guy for the university trying to avoid their liability in all these cases," he said.

The university, however, is blaming Asch. But several UCI employees have said during depositions that the university was aware of wrongdoing but failed to act, thinking they could win Nobel prizes.

The Challenders, who hoped the procedure would enable them to have their own child, say they're just fed up with everyone claiming to be victims.

"We can't figure out who's responsible, because everybody is a victim here," said John Challender, Debra's husband.

"It's painful to think that I could have two children in Orange County," John Challender had said in an interview with CNN last November. "(They are children) I'll never meet and I'll never get to hold, never get to play with, never get to love."

Not too long ago, UCI held a three-day conference on the ethics of reproductive medicine. The irony is not lost on the Challenders and others who filed law suits against the university.

CNN Correspondent Greg LaMotte contributed to this report.

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