Following an IVF mixup discovered last month, dozens of parents who underwent fertility procedures at Assuta Hospital are now demanding to know whether the children born to them are theirs, Israel Hayom reported.
According to the report, the parents are demanding that the Health Ministry and Assuta conduct urgent medical tests in order to ascertain that the embryos they are carrying, and those children who have already been born, are genetically theirs.
In an unusual letter sent Sunday evening to the Health Ministry and Assuta management, the parents' attorneys wrote, "We demand, without delay, to locate the medical tests and the various processes, in order to ensure that their embryos/ children are in fact theirs, and this in a different medical framework and funded by Assuta or the Health Ministry."
"You are again requested to transfer the information without delay to the couples who believe that as those with genetic potential to be associated with this incident, the delays in the transfer of information to the patients waiting in fear and without breathing, are unacceptable. It is no less difficult to understand the silence of the Health Ministry, when with every passing day the damage to the parents, with all it entails, increases."
Earlier, Israel Hayom reported that a request for a class action lawsuit had been filed against the Assuta Hospital chain and against Assuta Rishon Lezion. The suit was filed by A., a resident of Tel Aviv who underwent fertility treatments in February 2021, and it was filed with a demand to receive monetary compensation in the name of "everyone who underwent IVF treatments at Assuta hospitals, beginning from September 2015 and until September 2022."
The request was submitted to the Central District Court in Lod, and claims that "tens of thousands of men and women have been caught in a nightmare, and great fear has gripped them, that perhaps their children are not their biological children, as they believed, or do not carry the genes that they believed they carry, in case of an egg or sperm donation."
According to Assuta's website, its branches in Ramat Hahayal and Rishon Lezion perform about one-third of all IVF treatments in Israel.
Assuta responded: "Assuta conducted a thorough examination and investigation, reduced its scope of operations, ceased the acceptance of new patients until the evaluations have concluded, and now is examining the best technological solutions in the world and other means available in order to ensure that the rare instance such as this will not occur again."
The Health Ministry said, "When the event in Assuta Rishon Lezion became known, the Health Ministry decided to form a examination committee with top professionals, which will examine all of the issues. A broad and professional staff in the Health Ministry is holding professional and legal consultations with top Health Ministry officials, in order to ensure that no loose ends remain on this issue."
"The law in the State of Israel says that for every genetic test for the purpose of family ties, including of an embryo during pregnancy, a court order is required. As detailed in the law, when a request such as this is filed with the court, it is sent to the Attorney General."