Following the investigation in the case of in vitro fertilising at Sabyc clinic in Bucharest, the Medical Council informed that it requested for the clinic to be closed down in 2008. MC President prof. dr. Vasile Astarastoaie told Romanian TV channel Realitatea TV that "elementary medical ethics have been broken at Sabyc clinic. They bought body parts from poor, vulnerable people, without informing them on the risks and without telling them they were part of a research programme".
Vasile Astarastoaie said the Romanian Medical Council ran an investigation on Sabyc clinic from 2006 to 2008. After its completion, the MC requested for the clinic to be shut down. "In case of both Global Art (involved in an embryo scandal in 2005 - n.red.) and Sabyc, we found that elementary medical ethics have been breached," MC president says.
"As opposed to Global Art, the Sabyc staff covered their activity with a research protocol, a study. This is invalid from the Romanian legislation's point of view, because law 17/2001 was not respected, like norms regarding the voluntaries' selection or an independent ethics commission," Astarastoaie goes on.
On top of this, the Israeli doctors working until recently for the clinic did not own a licence to practice medicine in Romania. "I cannot explain that this activity went on after we completed the investigation in 2008," MC president says.
Poor, vulnerable people, who had parts of their bodies bought
Astarastoaie described Sabyc 'donors' as "vulnerable persons - poor people, who had parts of their body bought, without being informed on the risks". The agreement they signed contained many medical terms that they did not understand.
"People were not told they were part of a research study, they were given money and were taken parts of their bodies" MC president claims. He compared
