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Thomson Medical Centre charged for breaching IVF rules

Baby nursery (AFP Photo)
Baby nursery (AFP Photo)

Thomson Medical Centre has been charged for breaching the terms and conditions of its licence issued by the Ministry of Health (MOH).

Last October, a Singaporean Chinese woman and her Caucasian husband discovered that their baby's blood group did not match theirs and the baby's complexion also looked different.

DNA test later revealed that the baby was not biologically related to the husband.

The centre had wrongly used another man's sperm in a in-vitro fertilisation (IVF) procedure last January.

On Wednesday, the centre was charged for breaching the terms and conditions of its licence issued by MOH by failing to ensure that suitable procedures were followed in carrying out assisted reproduction treatment.

According to Channel NewsAsia, the centre is believed to have processed two semen specimens at a working space in a laboratory at the same time.

The centre also failed to discard after each step of processing, the disposable pipettes which are used to hold liquids. It had allegedly labelled the disposable pipettes and kept them in a rack for use in subsequent processing of the specimen from the same patient.

If convicted, the medical centre can be fined up to S$20,000.

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