Second Couple Plan to Sue UC, Doctors in Fertility Case

A second couple said Monday they plan to sue the University of California and its famed fertility doctors, contending that their eggs and sperm were stolen and given to a 46-year-old woman who later gave birth to a baby boy.

The Orange County couple’s action follows a legal claim filed May 23 by another couple alleging improper egg transfers by UC Irvine fertility specialist Dr. Ricardo H. Asch and his partners.

The first couple, who live north of Los Angeles, contend that an embryo stolen from them produced a boy, now 1 year old and living in Mexico. Their attorney alleged Monday that this couple learned of the boy’s existence from Asch himself during an April phone call.

And in a revelation that could broaden the fertility scandal beyond UC Irvine, Larry R. Feldman, attorney for both couples, said Monday that the first couple’s embryos were taken during a 1993 procedure at UC San Diego’s Assisted Reproductive Technologies clinic. Asch has a contract with the clinic that expires June 30.

“This could be a much broader and wider investigation than just UC Irvine,” said Feldman, a Santa Monica civil attorney.

UC San Diego officials declined to comment on the allegations, beyond saying that they are investigating their fertility program and have severed ties with Asch in the wake of the UC Irvine inquiry.

Asch and his partners, Jose P. Balmaceda and Sergio Stone, repeatedly have denied intentional wrongdoing and have blamed any problems on clerical mistakes.

The new legal claim filed Monday comes as UC Irvine officials are suing Asch, Balmaceda and Stone alleging that the physicians are withholding patients’ files and embryologist records, and accusing them of taking eggs without consent, giving patients an unapproved fertility drug and failing to report hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash payments to the university.

UC Irvine spokeswoman Fran Tardiff said Monday that she had not heard of the new legal claim, but added: “We desperately care about what happens to these patients. It would have been irresponsible to contact people prematurely before we had at least reasonable evidence and disturb their peace of mind.”

The two couples Feldman represents have not revealed their identities.

Feldman said the Orange County couple who filed the new legal claim believe that eggs and sperm taken from them in 1991 were implanted in another Orange County woman whose husband was infertile.

After a procedure at the UC Irvine Center for Reproductive Health, Feldman alleges, Asch told the woman that he had harvested seven eggs and that he had placed four into her Fallopian tubes, along with her husband’s sperm. The three remaining eggs were supposed to be frozen for use in the future, the lawyer said.

In May, Feldman said, the couple received an anonymous telephone call indicating that a child had been born from eggs and sperm. Since then, he said, the couple has received information that 14 eggs were removed from the woman’s body, not seven, and that three of those eggs were given to another woman.

“She learned the information from a person who disclosed that [there was] a 3 1/2-year-old child,” Feldman said.

Feldman said the Orange County couple, who are both professionals in their mid-30s, turned to another fertility specialist and the woman had to wait four more years to get pregnant.

In the first case, Feldman alleged that the woman learned during a phone call from Asch in April that her embryos had been given to another woman without her consent. According to court records filed by the university, Asch sent the woman a letter in March, 1993, asking her to sign a retroactive consent form that her eggs could be used for research. The woman ignored the request, Feldman said.

The next month Asch allegedly called the woman and tried to persuade her to retroactively consent to donate eggs taken from her during an August, 1993, procedure at UC San Diego’s clinic, Feldman said. The woman had a baby of her own in 1994, with Asch’s assistance.

Asch’s attorney, Ronald G. Brower, confirmed Monday that Asch had called the woman in April, but he denied that Asch asked the woman to sign a retroactive consent form that her eggs could be donated.

In court papers, UC Irvine contends that the investigator attempted to strong-arm the woman into signing a retroactive consent form allowing the use of her eggs for research.

Feldman said he believes the woman’s eggs were misappropriated at the San Diego clinic in 1993.

Brower, however, said he was unaware of any allegations concerning the San Diego clinic.