Couple Contend Embryos Stolen, Sue UCI Doctors

A Riverside couple are suing the three physicians at the center of the UC Irvine fertility clinic scandal, contending their fertilized embryos were stolen and possibly implanted in another woman who subsequently gave birth, according to a lawsuit filed in Orange County Superior Court on Tuesday.

The filing brings the total number of civil lawsuits to more than 50 stemming from the human egg-swapping scandal involving Dr. H. Asch, Dr. Sergio C. Stone, and Dr. Jose P. Balmaceda.

In 1991, Kirk and Christie Simons went to the now-defunct UCI Center for Reproductive Health for help conceiving a child. Through a medical procedure using what they believed were their own fertilized embryos, the couple gave birth to a son in 1992, the suit said.

From that procedure, 18 fertilized embryos were stored at the UCI clinic, of which four disappeared, the suit said. The couple suspects one of their embryos was given to an Orange County woman, who later had a baby, the suit said.

As a result of their suspicions, the Simons question whether the son they had is their biological child, the suit said.

The three UCI doctors have been accused by the university of stealing the eggs and embryos of scores of couples and implanting them in other women, some of whom gave birth. All have denied intentional wrongdoing.

Balmaceda has returned to his native Chile, and Asch is working in a Mexico City hospital. Stone, the only one of three physicians to remain in the United States, was arrested last month after his indictment on 10 counts of insurance fraud.

The suit also names the University of California as a defendant.