Israeli doctors indicted for human egg trafficking

July 23, 2009

WASHINGTON (JTA) -- Romania indicted nearly two dozen Bucharest-based Israeli fertility doctors in a human egg trafficking scandal.

The 22 doctors were caught in a raid on a Bucharest fertility clinic that was alleged to have been operating without required permits, Ha'aretz reported Thursday.

The head of the Romanian Medical Association on Tuesday likened the illicit clinic activities to Nazi practices.

Professor Vasili Esterestua told Romanian TV that the clinic "carried out medical experiments similar to those the Nazis did in Auschwitz," and the doctors exhibited "severe ethical deficiency."

Under Romanian law, legal egg donation requires that the donor is not compensated and egg extraction is performed in an authorized clinic.

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