Needed: Embryo Transplant Laws : Lack of criminal legislation may limit action in Irvine case

In all the shocking news about the fertility scandal centered at UC Irvine, a glaring deficiency has been the absence of laws governing either a misappropriation of human embryos or failure to obtain the consent of egg or sperm donors.

As multiple investigations into the once-lionized doctors who ran the school’s fertility program have progressed, some experts have warned that the lack of criminal legislation regarding embryo transplants may limit action against the physicians--all of whom deny any deliberate wrongdoing--to civil lawsuits.

More effective safeguards are needed. Among them should be criminal penalties, which would be a possible deterrent to doctors and other personnel at fertility clinics.

Bills introduced in Sacramento this month by State Sen. Tom Hayden (D-Santa Monica) and Assemblywoman Jackie Speier (D-Burlingame) represent welcome steps to bring needed regulation to a field where science has outrun law.

Hayden’s bill would make it a felony to transfer or implant human eggs or embryos without the informed consent of both donor and recipient. Although human eggs were allegedly taken from at least 60 women without their consent, prosecutors have complained that state law does not specifically cover the taking of such material. Investigators looking for evidence of criminal activity have turned their attention to insurance fraud or financial wrongdoing.

One of Speier’s bills would require a second physician to witness a doctor’s attempt to obtain a patient’s consent to donate human eggs or embryos for implantation in other women. The statement would have to be handwritten and the donor’s signature would have to be notarized. Those are sensible precautions.

The former director of the fertility clinic, Dr. Ricardo Asch, this week blamed his problems on UCI and the media. The university said Asch bears the blame for what went wrong at the now-closed clinic. The mutual finger-pointing has done little to reassure patients who badly wanted to become parents that anyone had their best interests at heart. New laws can help prevent a repeat of the scandal.