Fertility

The UC Board of Regents have quietly settled a dozen lawsuits stemming from fertility fraud uncovered nearly 15 years ago -- drawing closer to an end a scandal that has dogged UC Irvine and left behind dozens of heartbroken couples. Shirel and Steve Crawford recently deposited their $675,000 settlement, minus legal fees, but it brought them little peace. In the late 1980s, in the midst of what many consider the country's worst fertility scandal, the Crawfords believe their embryos were given to a woman referred to in documents as "Mrs.

Flame-retardant chemicals found in many household consumer products may reduce fertility in women, researchers reported Tuesday. Their study joins several other papers published in the last two years suggesting that the chemicals, polybrominated diphenyl ethers, or PBDEs, affect human health. PBDEs have been used as flame retardants for four decades and are found in foam furniture, electronics, fabrics, carpets and plastics. The chemicals are being phased out nationwide, and certain PBDEs have been banned for use in California.

Denying a request to seal the files of some 50 couples in the UC Irvine fertility scandal, a Superior Court judge Monday set Aug. 15 as the date on which he will approve the couples' $10-million settlement with the university and release the files. Lawyers for the couples had requested that Judge Robert E. Thomas keep the settlements sealed, citing privacy concerns. Instead, Thomas ordered the lawyers to submit details, including the plaintiffs' names and the dollar amounts they are to receive.

Crispina and Mark Calvert said they were grateful to the UC Irvine fertility clinics that helped them have a healthy 5-year-old son from a surrogate mother. But the couple now is suing the university and fertility team for allegedly misplacing their embryos. "We always thought that these doctors walked on water," Mark Calvert said. "They were God-like to us. . . . Now we feel they've stolen our heritage."

The federal trial of fertility clinic operator Dr. Sergio C. Stone, which was scheduled to start Tuesday, will now probably begin this summer, according to attorneys involved in the case. The postponement came at a pretrial hearing Monday after federal prosecutors sought deletions from the 35-count mail fraud indictment against Stone, the first of UC Irvine's fertility clinic doctors to stand trial. Stone and his two medical partners--Drs. Ricardo H. Asch and Jose P.

Dr. Sergio C. Stone, convicted of insurance fraud in connection with UC Irvine's fertility clinic scandal, was spared jail time and sentenced Monday to three years of probation. Stone, 56, must serve one year in a home detention program. He also must pay $50,000 in fines and more than $14,000 in restitution. "The sentence in this case has nothing to do with the eggs scandal," U.S. District Judge Gary L.

The biggest settlements to date arising from the UC Irvine fertility clinic scandal were approved this week, when University of California regents reached agreement with five couples victimized by doctors treating the wives for infertility. Two of the couples received settlements of $695,000 and $654,000 each, the largest sums awarded in the 72 civil lawsuits settled so far. The other three settlements also finalized Monday were for $5,450, $55,000 and $260,000.

Saddleback Memorial Medical Center will sever all ties with its branch of the Center for Reproductive Health because of alleged insurance fraud, misappropriation of funds and misuse of drugs at the main clinic at UC Irvine, a spokesman said Thursday. But attorneys for the clinic's doctors dug in their heels, contending that Saddleback has not filled contractual obligations to provide their clients with grounds for termination and an opportunity to remedy any perceived problems.

Re "And then there were two," Opinion, May 6 Implanting five embryos to get one or two viable ones is really human farming. Dan Neil and his wife accepted the abortions as part of the fertility process. Neil acknowledges the need for killing fetuses later in his article, after the introductory lie claiming "we didn't mean to." With all the other issues here, this article really highlights how eugenics (the boys might have been autistic) is the driving philosophy. The slippery slope of choice here is who gets to play God and who consciously decides who lives and who dies.

When the headline-grabbing allegations of possible human egg theft broke at UC Irvine in May, Newport Beach attorney Theodore S. Wentworth swung into action. Within weeks he had signed on one local couple as clients, put them through a crash course in media relations and sat them in front of reporter after reporter to field intimate queries about allegations that the wife's eggs may have been given to another woman.