When three whistle-blowers informed the authorities and the media in 1995 that doctors at the prestigious and lucrative Center for Reproductive Health - a fertility clinic operated by the University of California, Irvine (UCI) - were taking eggs from some women and implanting them into others without donor consent, a scandal unfolded that ended careers, destroyed reputations, and forever altered the lives of many families. The first incident of egg and embryo theft, as well as claims of insurance fraud, research misconduct and misappropriation of funds, grabbed headlines around the world and was featured on television programmes from "Primetime" to "The Oprah Winfrey Show". By the time the scandal had subsided several years later, two of the clinic's pre-eminent physicians had fled the country to avoid prosecution, one doctor was convicted on criminal charges in a highly controversial trial, and UCI had paid over 20 million dollars to settle law suits filed by former patients. The full story behind the much-publicized case is unveiled here. The authors untangle an intricate web of repeated cover-ups, scapegoats, evasions, self-interest, nastiness and injustice.
They scrutinize how a complex interplay of circumstances set the stage for wrongdoing at the clinic, reveal how the dramatic events were played out on both the public and legal battlefields, and examine how the personal histories, motivations and actions of the major players - the physicians, the whistle-blowers, the claimants, the lawyers, the various investigatory committees, the overzealous media, and UCI administrators. "Stealing Dreams" provides an absorbing, even-handed look at the evolution of the fertility clinic scandal and illuminates the complex ethical, medical and legal issues surrounding the largely unregulated field of reproductive medicine.