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Jabba the Hutt
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Jun 15, 2011
Thomson Medical charged with breaching IVF rules
By Khushwant Singh
Thomson Medical Centre, which carried out the in-vitro fertilisation procedure in January, apologised when the incident was made public. -- ST PHOTO: CHEW SENG KIM
IN October 2010, a Singaporean Chinese woman and her Caucasian permanent resident husband discovered that their baby's blood group did not match theirs.
The baby's complexion was also markedly different from theirs. More bad news was to follow when a DNA test showed that the baby born on Oct 1 2010 was not biologically related to the husband.
Thomson Medical Centre, which carried out the in-vitro fertilisation procedure in January, apologised when the incident was made public.
On Wednesday, the centre was charged in a district court for breaching the terms and conditions of its licence issued by the Ministry of Health (MOH) by failing to ensure that suitable procedures were followed in carrying out assisted reproduction treatment.
The charge does not make any reference to the baby mix-up, alleging that the centre had processed two semen specimens at the same workstation at the same time.
Pipettes used at its fertility centre were also said to have been reused instead of being discarded, as is standard protocol.
The case was adjourned till Tuesday.
