Out of Scandal, Something Good

A federal grand jury has indicted the former director of UC Irvine’s once acclaimed, now shuttered fertility clinic on charges of mail fraud. The allegations do not address claims that Dr. Ricardo H. Asch stole eggs and embryos from scores of women and implanted them in other patients, but they do give evidence of a thorough and warranted investigation of events at the clinic.

Asch is in Mexico. One of his former assistants is in Chile. Only the third doctor in the triumvirate once at the clinic’s top remains in this country. All have been charged with fraud; all have denied any intentional wrongdoing.

Even before last week’s criminal charges against Asch, the scandal had produced needed reforms. A new state law makes theft of human eggs a crime. The University of California has tightened its procedures to monitor all research involving humans, not just research involving reproduction. The university also has ordered tighter controls over its four remaining fertility clinics, at Davis, San Diego, San Francisco and Los Angeles.

In addition, numerous civil lawsuits have been filed. Several have been settled with payments that have passed the $1-million mark.

The scandal has dramatized the complexity of legal and ethical issues surrounding the field of reproductive technology, which has brought hope to millions of couples. As science has advanced in one of human life’s most sensitive areas, the law has struggled to catch up. There is now machinery in place to guard against recurrences of the UCI scandal, but medical professionals and those monitoring them still must be on guard to ensure the new regulations are heeded.