From Seattle writer and consultant Matt Rosenberg...

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"Wrong Embryos" Doc Loses License

March 31, 2005

The Medical Board of California has decided to revoke for five years the license of a Marin County doctor, for implanting the wrong embryos in a local woman.

Dr. Steven L. Katz...acknowledges he failed to immediately tell Susan Bucheweitz that he'd mistakenly implanted someone else's embryos in her womb in 2000. He waited 18 months to tell her and the other couple - who are now seeking custody of Bucheweitz's son. Bucheweitz was awarded $1 million to settle her malpractice suit against Katz, Imam El-Danasouri, the scientist who incubated the embryos and allegedly provided the wrong ones, and the clinic, Fertility Associates of the Bay Area.

....Katz has until April 27 - the effective date of the revocation - to appeal the decision. He could seek a stay that would allow him to continue operating his clinic until a final court ruling. After three years, he's allowed to apply for reinstatement of his license.

The old version of this story was the "switched at birth" gambit, which of course hardly ever happened at all in real life, but figures into more than a few movie plots. The switched embryos story might warrant a cable TV film treatment, with a twist: the mistake isn't discovered until the child needs a life-saving kidney transplant.

Who can predict the result of the current custody battle? But while the goof is obviously no fault of the birth mother, Bucheweitz, I'd have to say the suppliers of the fertilized in-vitro embryos are entitled to be the parents of the child she carried to term.

Posted by Matt Rosenberg at March 31, 2005 01:55 PM

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Comments:

There was another remarkable mix up recently, in, as I recall, Long Island. Two couples went to the same fertility clinic and had fertilized eggs implanted. As generally happens, one of the women had more than one egg implanted.

When, nine months later, she gave birth to twins, it was immediately obvious that there had been a mistake on the part of the laboratory. One of the twins was white (as she was); the other was black.

As I recall, after some legal maneuverings, the black twin was transferred to its genetic parents. (And I assume the clinic paid big bucks to all involved.)

Posted by: Jim Miller at April 3, 2005 09:37 AM
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