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\nA Southern California couple is suing a fertility clinic, claiming their embryo was mistakenly implanted in a New York woman, who gave birth to their son as well as a second boy belonging to another couple.<\/p>\n
\nThe lawsuit by Anni and Ashot Manukyan describes an alleged in vitro fertilization mix-up by CHA Fertility Center in Los Angeles that involves three separate couples.<\/p>\n
\n“What Anni and Ashot discovered, much to their horror, was that their son had been stolen from them when he was still an embryo and implanted into a stranger that later became his birth mother,” claims the suit filed Wednesday in Los Angeles County Superior Court.<\/p>\n
\nThe birth mother in New York believed she was carrying twins made from her and her husband’s genetic material, the suit says.<\/p>\n
\nGenetic testing confirmed the two infants were not related to the couple and were not related to each other.<\/p>\n
\nThe Queens woman and her husband filed a separate medical malpractice and negligence lawsuit in federal court in Brooklyn last week.<\/p>\n
\nThe Manukyans, of Glendale, California, endured a court fight before being granted custody of their son, according to the court filing. They are seeking unspecified compensatory and punitive damages.<\/p>\n
\n“CHA put three families through a living hell, and our lives will never be the same,” Ashot Manukyan said in a statement. “We fought to get our boy back and now we will fight to make sure this never happens again.”<\/p>\n
\nCHA officials did not respond to emails seeking comment. An attorney for the clinic could not be found.<\/p>\n
\nIn addition, Anni Manukyan was mistakenly implanted with at least one embryo of a stranger, when she thought the embryo resulted from her and her husband’s genetic material, according to the lawsuit. That implantation did not result in a successful pregnancy, the court papers say.<\/p>\n
\nIt’s unclear from the lawsuits who the third couple is or what happened to the other boy.<\/p>\n
\nThe Los Angeles lawsuit also alleges the clinic violated a California law that bars knowingly using “sperm, ova, or embryos in assisted reproduction technology, for any purpose other than that indicated by the sperm, ova, or embryo provider’s signature on a written consent form.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n