Israeli Hospital Mixes Up Women’s Eggs

Conception: In-vitro fertilization is one of the procedures that needs to be supported. Image by Think Stock

By Daniel J. Solomon January 30, 2017

An Israeli hospital accidentally implanted one woman with an embryo belonging to another, the hospital said January 27.

The two women were both receiving fertility treatments at the Barzilai Medical Center in Ashkelon, when a failure to follow procedure led to the incident. The error was realized soon after it was made, with both women receiving notification and the one who took the implant undergoing a “cleaning” procedure to ensure there would be no pregnancy.

“Mistakes happen, and we will ensure that this does not occur again,” Dr. Chezi Levy, head of the hospital, told Yedioth Ahronoth when the news broke.

Officials at the medical center and Israel’s Health Ministry were both said to be investigating the incident.

Contact Daniel J. Solomon at [email protected] or on Twitter @DanielJSolomon

Daniel J. Solomon is the former Assistant to the Editor/News Writer at the Forward. Originally from Queens, he attended Harvard as an undergraduate, where he wrote his senior thesis on French-Jewish intellectual history. He is excited to have returned to New York after his time in Massachusetts. Daniel’s passions include folk music, cycling, and pointed argument.

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