Embryo Project Encyclopedia

The Center for Reproductive Health was a fertility clinic run by a partnership of world-renowned fertility specialists from 1986 to 1995. The Center operated at three clinic locations under affiliation with the University of California Irvine 's Medical Center (UCIMC). The Center's renowned specialists and medical success stories attracted clients worldwide until evidence of highly unethical practices conducted by doctors there resulted in over one hundred lawsuits against the University. At issue was the doctors' misappropriation and unauthorized use of eggs and embryos. The three partners of the Center were indicted for mail fraud, for billing insurance companies for work not performed, and for violating California State legislation requiring consent to use eggs and embryos and outlawing egg and embryo theft. The three partners indicted for the unethical practices at the Center were Sergio Stone, a uterine surgery and hormonal treatment specialist, José Balmaceda, a Rockefeller Foundation fellowship award winner in reproductive endocrinology, and Ricardo Asch, director of the clinics and inventor of the gamete intrafallopian transfer (GIFT) assisted reproduction technique.