Woman Implanted with Wrong Embryo to Give Birth for Biological Parents

This has not been a good year for fertility clinics. The year begain with the OctoMom scandal generating scathing criticism of fertility doctors for sometimes implanting too many embryos or implanting them in dubious circumstances. And now with a few months left of the year, two fertility clinic mishaps have simultaneously made the news: a woman was implanted with the wrong embryo in Ohio and a California fertility clinic fertilized a woman's ova with the wrong sperm.

OctoMom Outrage Leads to Calls for Fertility Clinic Regulation

Nadya Suleman, aka OctoMom, was an unemployed mother of 6 children under age 8 when a fertility doctor implanted 8 embryos into her uterus, all of which developed. When the news of the octuplets birth became public, the immediate interest soon gave way to harsh criticism of the fertility doctor who implanted 8 embryos into a mother of 6 who had no job, no husband, and was dependent on public assistance for support. Public outrage was so intense that the threat of greater regulation loomed over fertility clinics.

The OctoMom outrage died down, and now two new stories of fertility clinic improprities have hit the national press.

Woman Implanted with Wrong Embryo

Carolyn Savage of Sylvania, Ohio, found out 12 weeks into her pregnancy that her fertility clinic implanted the wrong embryo and she was carrying another couple's baby. Faced with a decision to terminate the pregnancy or act as a surrogate for the couple whose embryo was mistakenly implanted into her uterus, Savage opted to give birth on the other woman's behalf. She is now 35 weeks into the pregnancy.

The Savages' attorney contacted the biological parents of the embryo mistakenly implanted into Carolyn Savage during the 14^th week of pregnancy and began discussing the logistics of the birth and baby transfer. Savage will allow them to attend the birth and said all that she has requested is some private time to say goodbye to the baby upon the baby's entry into the world.

While this woman was implanted with the wrong embryo, the other case reported this week involves a fertility clinic destroying a woman's embryos after discovering that it mistakenly fertilized them with a stranger's sperm.

Embryos Fertilized with Wrong Sperm Destroyed

A San Mateo County, California couple Katie and Robert Aschero sued Laurel Fertility Care in San Francisco this week after learning that the facility created 7 viable embryos from her ova and the wrong sperm, then discarded the embryos in alleged violation of the couple's contractual rights upon learning of their mistake. The clinic created another 6 embryos with the correct sperm and implanted them, but Katie Aschero didn't become pregnant.

Katie Aschero said she is not sure whether she would have had the embryos fertilized with a stranger's sperm implanted had the clinic not destroyed them.

Woman Implanted with Wrong Embryo Aborts

The Times Online reported in June on the case of a U.K. woman identified as Deborah who learned that her last embryo had been aborted by another woman into whom it was mistakenly implanted. Unlike Carolyn Savage, the unnamed U.K. woman chose an abortion rather than carrying to term another woman's baby. When Deborah and her husband's lawyer investigated, he found that there had been "near misses" at the clinic the prior year because the lab inadequately monitored embryo ownership.

Sources: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/09/15/BAO819NJK2.DTL; http://weeklyworldnews.com/headlines/11944/woman-implanted-with-wrong-embryo/;http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/32950836/; http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/health/article6493900.ece.