Hearing of doctor charged with selling ova to begin on Sunday

A gynecologist suspected of illegally harvesting human eggs from fertility patients and selling them to other women is due to face the first day of his disciplinary hearing on Sunday at the Health Ministry in Jerusalem.

Prof. Zion Ben-Raphael, 57, is suspected of culling a total of 497 eggs from six private patients at the Herzliya Medical Center without the patients' knowledge or consent, or after misleading them in order to obtain their consent.

Ben-Raphael, who previously served as head of the obstetrics and gynecology department at Beilinson Hospital in Petah Tikva, is suspected of having given some of his patients dangerously large amounts of hormones to produce superfluous ova, according to the British Medical Journal.

The scandal, first reported in Haaretz in February 2000, is considered one of the worst to have hit Israel in the gynecology field.

The disciplinary complaint was filed in 2006, after Ben-Raphael signed a plea bargain overturning a 2005 indictment in the Tel Aviv Magistrate's Court that charged the gynecologist with six counts of fraud and obstruction of justice. The obstruction charge stems from a $20,000 payment Ben-Raphael allegedly made to a man who presented himself as a police official and said he could get the case against the doctor dropped.

Health Ministry officials said a decision was reached during the plea bargain whereby Ben-Raphael's medical license would be temporarily revoked, apparently for two and a half years. The ministry had previously demanded a five-year revocation.

The final decision on the sanctions Ben-Raphael will face is up to the disciplinary panel, whose members include Dr. Meir Oren, director of Hillel Yaffeh Medical Center in Hadera; Prof. Uzi Beler, director of the gynecology department at Shaare Zedek Medical Center in Jerusalem; and Yaakov Levy, an attorney representing the attorney general. Ben-Raphael has hired high-profile lawyers Dr. Yaakov Weinrot and Prof. David Libai to represent him in the case.

As part of the plea bargain, Ben-Raphael confessed to disciplinary offenses involving behavior not befitting a doctor and violating patients' rights. The deal was reached after Ben-Raphael petitioned the High Court of Justice concerning the way in which the decision was made to indict him.

Ben-Raphael has not worked at Beilinson or any other clinic affiliated with the Clalit health maintenance organization since the charges were brought against him, but he still has a private practice.