IVF Errors

Fertility doctors and treatments are becoming more and more common. As a result, the errors made in fertility and in vitro fertilization procedures are beginning to come to light more frequently. One of the biggest errors that any fertility specialist can make regarding in vitro is a screw up in the actual fertilization process.

While this sounds like it should never happen because of a wide variety of inventions like sticky notes, label makers, permanent ink pens, and anything else that can be used to label a vial or sample, it is not unheard of for a doctor to use the wrong specimen during an in vitro procedure.

For example, a woman in California is going through a massive paternity battle to keep the child she gave birth to and has raised for three years because her doctor gave her some other woman’s egg instead of her own. Another case in Connecticut has a woman potentially carrying the product of her egg and another man who does not happen to be her fiancé.

In both cases, it seems a problem with labeling and a lack of safeguards in place to prevent this type of error are the problems at hand. England has also had a variety of similar cases caused by a similar lackadaisical labeling process.

According to a number of health ethics lawyers, the rules around in vitro fertilization are almost completely nonexistent. Some even refer to the area of medicine as the “wild west” due to the lack of rules and regulations.

Contact a Philadelphia Medical Malpractice Attorney

If you have been injured in some way by a fertility doctor’s negligence or errors, contact the Philadelphia medical malpractice lawyers of Lowenthal & Abrams, P.C. at 215-238-1130.