Fitting Fate for Fertility Doctor

Dr. Sergio C. Stone was one of the three stars of the UC Irvine Center for Reproductive Health, a facility once hailed for its fertility research and ability to help couples have children. Stone might not have played as big a role in the center’s operations as the other doctors caught up in the institution’s 1995 scandal, but he fell short of the standards required of a medical doctor, researcher and university professor. His argument that he is being made a scapegoat for the center’s shocking ethical lapses is not persuasive.

The University of California Board of Regents fired Stone Wednesday, an appropriate action against a man convicted of fraudulently billing insurance companies for work done at the center. A court had fined him $50,000 and sentenced him to one year of home detention.

Stone and Drs. Ricardo H. Asch and Jose P. Balmaceda were indicted on federal fraud charges. Only Asch was charged with misappropriating eggs of patients. All three denied any intentional wrongdoing, but Asch and Balmaceda have left the country. The university has paid more than $20 million to settle lawsuits filed by couples who were patients at the center, which has since been shut down.

A UC Irvine panel recommended demoting Stone, not firing him. The panel contended that his false claims were administrative errors. But the university alleges that the doctors owe millions of dollars to the school, with which they were partners.

The University of California, derelict in its oversight of the doctors, has instituted new procedures to monitor research involving humans. The Legislature has made theft of human eggs a crime. The dismissal of Stone closes an important chapter in a disturbing case.