Probe launched into embryo alarm

Health minister says procedure safe, when protocols followed

(ANSA) - Rome, April 16 - The Rome prosecutor's office ordered an investigation Wednesday into reports alleging that the fertility clinic of a hospital in the Italian capital accidentally mixed up embryos.

Prosecutors are going to look into complaints about Rome's Sandro Pertini Hospital, which has been inundated with calls following reports that said embryos may have been switched among couples, with one woman reportedly carrying twins that are not her own. One day earlier, a couple who believes their embryos may have been switched by mistake with those of another couple announced they were suing. In that case, the alleged switch occurred on December 4, when four women were scheduled to have viable embryos implanted.

Three of them became pregnant as a result of the procedure and the fourth expressed deep concerns. "If the embryos were mine, then obviously the children are mine as well. I couldn't live with the idea that children of mine are growing up somewhere in Italy," the fourth, a 36-year-old Rome woman, told local newspapers. "We were four aspiring mothers. The others are pregnant and I'm not," said the woman. Health Minister Beatrice Lorenzin said Wednesday that she has asked for an investigation by regional authorities to ensure that proper procedures are in place and were followed.

She also expressed confidence in national standards set for assisted-fertility treatments. "I want to reassure everyone that in Italy every day hundreds and hundreds of these insemination interventions proceed and are very safe," said Lorenzin. "When these things (reported mix-ups) happen, it is because someone did not comply with the control procedures," she added.

Rome's Pertini hospital has helped hundreds of people with assisted-fertility treatments, many of whom now fear that children they are expecting or that have been born to them may not be genetically theirs.