[hictchewisa]

Japanese woman impregnated with wrong egg

The Associated Press
February 18, 2009

TOKYO - Health officials in Japan say a woman was likely impregnated with the fertilized egg of another woman by accident during an in vitro procedure last year.

The woman, who is in her 20s, aborted the pregnancy when she was told of the potential mix-up at the government-run hospital in Kagawa prefecture, about 530 kilometres southwest of Tokyo.

She is now suing the local government for the equivalent of US$222,000, according to news reports.

Hospital officials apologized for the mistake at a news conference Thursday.

In vitro procedures - in which a woman's eggs are removed, fertilized outside the womb, and placed in her uterus to cause a pregnancy - are common in Japan, with hundreds of thousands carried out per year.

The case drew wide attention because bearing and raising children who are not related to the mother is uncommon and has been discouraged by Japanese medical groups.

"She was very happy after undergoing such a difficult procedure and becoming pregnant, but unfortunately a mistake had been made," said Yuzo Matsumoto, director of the Kagawa Prefectural Central Hospital.

The hospital has a long history of carrying out such procedures, and this is the first time such a mistake has occurred, hospital spokesman Hajime Morishita said.

"The in vitro procedures are carried out in sequence one after the other, and in this case the eggs from one procedure may have accidentally been left over and used in the following procedure," he said.