UCI Has Taken Lead in Fertility Inquiry

* To the points made by Corrine Bayley and Jack Glaser in their Aug. 13 column stating that UCI, the Center for Reproductive Health physicians and lawyers should stop pointing fingers and acknowledge the emotional suffering the fertility clinic allegations have caused, my response is: UCI has.

To their question: “Wouldn’t it be nice if we all spent our energy finding ways to assure quality of care and prevent unethical behavior rather than concentrate on damage control?” Again my answer is: We have. Unfortunately, those actions are not what make the pages of the local newspapers.

What seems to be escaping notice is that the university, since early 1994, has been carefully, arduously investigating what went on at the Center for Reproductive Health to determine how it could have happened and how to prevent future unethical behavior. We have persisted, throughout considerable embarrassment to the university, because it is our moral and ethical duty.

I have tightened departmental controls, insisted that physicians open their records to appropriate university officials, and the UC system has completely revamped its physician compensation plan to ensure financial controls, as well as closer monitoring of physician practices. UCI’s vice chancellor for research has formed a research task force and a satellite Office of Clinical Research Services at UCI Medical Center to assist faculty in making sure their research follows the highest standards. We have established a hot line for CRH patients. The dean of the UCI College of Medicine is also convening an ethics conference to examine the broad concerns and to help develop a rational approach to guidelines in reproductive technology.

I realize it is difficult for anyone outside this fertility clinic crisis to understand how seriously I, and the entire university, take these apparent misdeeds or how deeply we agonize for those patients. Not for a moment have our obligations to medical ethics escaped our attention. A necessary prelude to reaching that ethical high ground, however, must be to examine the facts and determine the truth. I believe we have learned much of the truth. My goal now is to complete our investigations and cooperate with all the appropriate agencies to achieve justice.

LAUREL L. WILKENING

Chancellor, UCI