Artificial fertilization: Woman has wrong embryo implanted in Italy

By mistake, a woman in Italy was given the wrong embryo during artificial fertilization. The mistake occurred last month at a hospital in Milan, where two couples were waiting for a fertilized egg to be transferred to the two women after laboratory fertilization. According to a report by the daily newspaper "La Repubblica" (Saturday), however, the woman who was first in line was accidentally given an embryo from the second couple.

Apparently, the names of the two women had been swapped. At the clinic - the renowned San-Raffaele hospital in the northern Italian metropolis - all such interventions have now been temporarily stopped on the instructions of the health authorities. They are not to be resumed until a thorough examination of how the mistake could occur has been carried out.

Report: Error noticed after just eight minutes The mistake happened on the morning of July 23: two couples who could not have children naturally had consecutive appointments at the clinic. According to a preliminary investigation report quoted by "La Repubblica", shortly after 11 am, an embryo was implanted in the first woman as planned - but it was not her own, but the embryo of the other couple.

According to the report, the mistake was noticed after just eight minutes because one of the biologists involved checked the name again. It is stated that, together with the couple, it was decided to suction out the accidentally implanted embryo. The couple's own embryo, which had not been used, was preserved again. On average, an embryo actually implants in the uterus in about 30 to 40 percent of cases after such a transplant.

In Italy, more than 80,000 couples try to have a child through artificial fertilization every year. Other couple received second own embryo The other couple, from whom the inserted embryo originated, was transferred a second embryo on the same day, which actually came from these two. The doctors did not initially tell them about the mistake.

This was justified by the desire to avoid "emotional and psychological stress in the days in which the implantation of the embryo could take place". Meanwhile, this couple has also been informed.