ProLife

Israeli women go to Romania to get eggs implanted
By Ran Reznick Ha'aretz Medical Affairs Correspondent

Five Israeli couples arrived in Romania on Thursday to receive eggs harvested from Romanian women.

The treatments were conducted in the Sybic Medical Center in Bucharest by a team of Israeli doctors. The team was headed by Professor Rafi Ron-El, director of the in-vitro fertilization unit at Assaf Harofeh government hospital in Tzrifin.

Professor Ron-El told Ha'aretz that the egg-donor procedure was conducted in Romania in accordance with Israeli law and that he "assumes" that approval was received for it from the Romanian Health Ministry.

The eggs the Israeli women will be implanted with came from Romanian women who underwent fertility treatments in return for a discount, or "bonus" as Professor Ron-El put it, on the price of the treatment. Ron-El said the Israeli couples paid a price similar to that charged for such treatments at private hospitals in Israel.

The estimated cost is NIS 15,000 for fertility treatments including the donation of an egg, not including flights and accommodations in Romania. Assaf Harofeh's research foundation recently signed an agreement to cooperate with the medical center in Bucharest to treat Romanian couples and Israeli couples coming to Romania for infertility.

Businessman Raz Hochman, the business manager for the fertility treatments in Bucharest, told Ha'aretz that Assaf Harofeh hospital has in fact established a branch abroad, and that all the treatments conducted in Romania are carried out by Professor Ron-El. The fertility treatments at the Sybic center are also carried out by Romanian physicians, including the president of the Romania Gynecologists Association.

In recent months, demand by Israeli couples to purchase eggs abroad (particularly in Cyprus and Eastern Europe) has risen, especially following the Ha'aretz expose about the alleged illegal trading in eggs by senior gynecologists, including Prof. Zion Ben-Rafael and Dr. Jackie Ashkenazi of the Beilinson and Sharon hospitals in Petah Tikva. The gynecologists are suspected of giving women overdoses of fertility hormones in order to sell the surplus eggs to women undergoing fertility treatments in private hospitals. The affair is still being investigated.

Last week, Hochman noted that. "In light of the problem of finding egg donors in Israel, a large number of women have appealed to us to find donors in Romania," he wrote.

Professor Ron-El said that making the matter public could "cause enormous damage and confusion, awakening false hopes among childless couples. Everything is done exactly as it is done in Israeli private hospitals, in full accordance with the law.

And in a follow-up article...

Hospital told to suspend its Romanian egg implants

Health Ministry Director-General Joshua Shemer has ordered Assaf Harofeh Hospital to suspend all business and medical contacts with a Romanian medical center which implants eggs harvested from Romanian women in Israeli women, until the ministry can meet to discuss the matter.

Shemer has also ordered the hospital in Tzrifin to present him with full reports on all the women who have undergone fertility treatment at the center through the hospital's mediation.

The directives were issued following yesterday's publication in Ha'aretz about a business arrangement between Assaf Harofeh's research foundation at the private medical center in Bucharest.

Visit the Haaretz website

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