Other Embryos Thrown Away, Audit of Clinics Shows

  LONDON, NOV. 15, 2000 (ZENIT.org).- At least 100 women have been mistakenly

  implanted with another couple's embryo or suffered the loss of embryos

  because of incompetence by infertility clinics, The Sunday Times of London

  reported.

  An internal audit of the clinics revealed often chaotic procedures, the

  newspaper said, including theses cases:

  --Deborah Gray, 40, from Strangford Lough, County Down, who was told that

  she had been implanted with the wrong embryo by mistake. She had an abortion.

  --Diana Finlay, 39, from Leicester, whose last remaining frozen embryo was

  thrown away after the container holding it lost its label.

  --Deborah Mia, 37, from Dagenham in Essex, whose five remaining frozen

  embryos were thrown away last year even though she had begun treatment for

  them to be implanted.

  --A woman who spent eight years undergoing fertilization treatment at

  various London hospitals, before doctors realized she had a contraceptive

  coil in her womb.

  The cases were discovered following an audit by the Human Fertilization and

  Embryology Authority (HFEA), which polices the 118 in vitro fertilization

  clinics in Britain, the Sunday Times said.

  The report, based on a sample of 1,400 IVF treatments and 700 sperm donor

  inseminations, records disruptions to power supplies at "various" centers,

  leading to loss of undisclosed numbers of fresh embryos in incubators.

  It also describes mistakes in data collection, including errors in the

  names of patients and their families, the inaccurate recording of skin

  color or ethnic group of sperm donors, and the reporting of nonexistent

  pregnancies.

  Bert Stewart, a senior embryologist and former HFEA inspector who now works

  in Auckland, New Zealand, estimated that one in 1,000 test-tube babies may

  have been implanted in the wrong woman, meaning at least 25 to 30 IVF

  children in Britain are being brought up by someone other than their

  genetic mother.

  "If you have a slack checking system, it might take a long time before you

  realize you have made a mistake," he said. "Good clinics have systems where

  you can spot a mistake straight away."

  Another HFEA inspector estimated that at least 100 women had been affected

  by IVF errors, the London newspaper said.

  The cases of lost and mistaken embryos came to light following

  investigations into the scandal of the Hampshire Clinic in Basingstoke,

  Berkshire, where up to 40 women discovered that embryos believed to be in

  storage did not exist, the paper said. Paul Fielding, the embryologist

  involved, has been released on police bail, the Sunday Times added.

  The HFEA denied that there were widespread problems in infertility clinics

  and said any errors were a tiny fraction of the total number of IVF

  treatments, the newspaper added.

  ZE00111502