In Other Journals

A leading fertility expert in Israel, who removed hundreds of ova — without permission — from private patients undergoing fertility treatments in the late 1990s, will lose his medical licence for 2 and a half years as punishment, according to a news report in the BMJ. The expert had used the ova for the in-vitro fertilisation (IVF) of infertile women; in one woman, 232 ova were removed, with 155 used for IVF in 33 infertile women. Since the case came to light, the Israeli government has legislated to allow women who are not themselves undergoing fertility treatments to donate their ova altruistically.