UCI FERTILITY SCANDAL : Q&A; : Help Available for Couples Coping With Fertility Issues

Couples who have sought help from fertility clinics in Orange County to conceive children are asking lots of questions in the wake of the UCI clinic allegations, local doctors and counselors said Friday. They wonder, for instance, whether embryos and sperm they have stored at the clinics have been used without their knowledge for research or have created children now living with other families.

In fielding these questions, fertility experts point out that mishandling of embryos and sperm is rare. But they advise that if couples want to make certain that their sons or daughters are biologically their own, they can turn to investigative techniques, ranging from studying medical records to forensic blood typing and DNA matching.

Question: How often have allegations about mishandling of embryo and eggs surfaced?

Answer: The allegations about egg and embryo transfers occurring between patients without donor consent at the UCI Center for Reproductive Health are the first in the 14-year history of in-vitro fertilization in the United States, said Dr. Alan DeCherney, president of the Society for Assisted Reproductive Technologies.

Q: What should couples do if they have questions?

A: Dr. Robert Anderson, a reproductive endocrinologist and director of the Southern California Center for Reproductive Medicine in Newport Beach, said couples should contact their doctor. “The worst thing to do is not to talk to their doctors and assume the worst,” he said.

The UCI Medical Center and Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology have established a phone line for patients who have questions about their fertility treatment at UCI Medical Center. The number is (714) 456-8906.

Q: Can a couple obtain their medical records?

A: Yes. Patients have ownership of their medical records and the right to remove them from a clinic, Anderson said.

Q: Who owns the sperm and embryos?

A: “Patients have the ultimate say of what happens to them and where they are kept,” Anderson said.

Q: How can a couple prove that the children they have are from their own egg and sperm?

A: The couple could go to any hospital and ask for a routine blood typing. This kind of testing sometimes will show if the mother or father is not related to the child. “It can exclude maternity and paternity but not necessarily rule it in,” said Dr. Delbert Fisher, chief science officer at Corning Nichols Institute in San Juan Capistrano.

Greater accuracy can be achieved by going to one of the clinics or laboratories that specialize in confirming parentage. In Southern California, such testing can be done for private parties at the UCLA, Children’s Hospital San Diego and Long Beach Genetics.

Matthew McGinniss, director of the molecular genetics laboratory at Children’s Hospital San Diego, said special blood or DNA testing can raise the accuracy rate of matching parents to children to 99.9%. He said the testing takes three to eight weeks and costs $536 at his facility.

Q: What should a couple do if they learn that their child is not biologically theirs or if they discover their embryos were used by another couple to give birth?

A: “I think they should seek professional help to assimilate this new information into their family,” said Ellen Winters Miller, a licensed marriage and family counselor in Newport Beach who specializes in helping people struggling with fertility-related issues.

Miller said the couples may grapple with decisions about how--or if--they will disclose the mix-up to their child and whether they want to look up the biological parents to learn about their child’s genetic history and potential future medical problems. “There is no right or wrong way to proceed,” Miller said. “Some people may think ‘It is irrelevant, this is our child no matter what.’ ”