Many couples throughout the country — including many here in Oregon — are unable to have children on their own. They require medical intervention in order to conceive, and they entrust their ability to have a child to fertility doctors and science. When doctor errors take away their dreams of being parents, a medical malpractice suit may be appropriate.
Filing a lawsuit is exactly what one couple from another state did because they claim their fertility doctor did the unthinkable — he implanted another couple’s embryos into the woman during an in vitro fertilization procedure in early 2014. According to the suit, he subsequently performed two abortion procedures on her without her consent in order to cover up his mistake. A nurse at the California doctor’s practice reportedly told the couple that an inspection of what should have been their remaining embryos revealed that they were all still there, which meant that the doctor may have used the wrong embryos.
The doctor then scraped her cervix, which is a procedure often used in abortions during the first trimester, under the guise of “checking on” the embryos. The next day, she was given a shot that she was told was for bleeding. The couple then discovered that she was actually given methotrexate, which is used for chemical abortions.
The couple believes that doctor errors denied them — and the couple whose embryos were misused — the right to a child. If an Oregon couple believes that their fertility doctor made a mistake that cost them a child, they, too, may exercise the right to file a medical malpractice claim. The court may award damages if negligence is successfully established through appropriate evidence. Monetary restitution may not give them back the chance to have a child, but it could help with the financial burdens incurred in the attempt.
Source: lifenews.com, “Fertility Doc Implanted Wrong Embryos Into Woman, Then Did an Abortion Without Her Consent“, Micaiah Bilger, Nov. 24, 2015