Balmaceda, Stone Expected to Testify at Senate Hearing

Two of the three doctors at the center of the UC Irvine fertility controversy apparently will testify Wednesday at a state Senate hearing, but it is uncertain if the center’s world-renowned director, Dr. Ricardo H. Asch, will show up, an official said Friday.

Dr. Jose P. Balmaceda was served with a subpoena and Dr. Sergio C. Stone has volunteered to go to Sacramento, said Stephanie Rubin, counsel to the Senate Select Committee on Higher Education. A fourth doctor, Jane Frederick, who is employed at the fertility center but is not implicated in the scandal, also has been subpoenaed.

But Rubin, who met with those doctors’ attorneys Friday in Los Angeles, said Asch’s whereabouts are unknown. His attorney, Ron Brower, agreed to accept the subpoena on Asch’s behalf, Rubin said, but she said the Senate prefers to serve subpoenas on the person for whom they are intended.

“We will attempt to serve [Asch] until the day of the hearing,” Rubin said.

In a statement released Friday, Brower accused the Senate committee’s chairman Tom Hayden (D-Santa Monica) of falsely telling reporters that he was refusing the subpoena and of passing judgment on his client before all the evidence is examined.

“Senator Hayden, before hearing the evidence or any testimony from the doctors . . . publicly pronounced that Dr. Asch was a technocrat playing with the lives of people and the unborn. Apparently having already made up his mind, how fair will the hearings be?” asked Brower.

The three doctors have been accused by UCI of misappropriating patient eggs, performing unauthorized human research, financial misconduct and insurance fraud. The doctors have denied knowingly committing any wrongdoing.

The hearing--the broadest public inquiry into the accusations against the UCI fertility doctors thus far--also is expected to include testimony from Mary Piccione, UCI Medical Center’s executive director; Herb Spiwak, her deputy; John and Deborah Challender, a Corona couple who allege their embryos were misappropriated, and others.

As many of those involved with the UCI center prepared Friday for their appearances, officials at two other medical centers, Saddleback Memorial in Laguna Hills and UC San Diego, said they were pressing forward with inquiries into the doctors’ practices at their campuses.

But Steve Geidt, a senior vice president at Saddleback, said much of his day was spent fielding inquiries from concerned patients. The hospital announced Thursday that it intends to sever ties with the fertility center’s satellite clinic at Saddleback as of June 30.

“We want [patients] to understand that we are not going to leave them high and dry,” Geidt said. The medical center has said the June 30 date may be extended.

UC San Diego has broadened its inquiry to include all aspects of Asch’s practice at its fertility program--from clinical performance to research and financial activities, said spokeswoman Leslie Franz. Last month, UC San Diego severed all ties with Asch, who had worked at its clinic four times a year since 1993.