Board hears doctor’s case over octuplets

May 06, 2011|Associated Press

LOS ANGELES — The medical license of a doctor who implanted 12 embryos into Nadya Suleman should be revoked because he put the lives of patients in jeopardy and remains a threat to others, a prosecutor said yesterday.

Deputy Attorney General Judith Alvarado alleged nine breaches of the California Medical Practice Act while saying the license of Dr. Michael Kamrava should be pulled.

In addition, Kamrava shrugged off his responsibility by blaming patients for his own “bad acts,’’ Alvarado told the California Medical Board at a license revocation hearing.

Kamrava, a Beverly Hills fertility doctor, has said he implanted Suleman, known as the “Octomom,’’ with a dozen embryos — six times the norm for a woman her age — before the pregnancy that resulted in her octuplets.

National guidelines issued by the American Society for Reproductive Medicine specify that no more than two embryos are to be used during in vitro treatments for a healthy woman under 35. Suleman was 33 at the time.

The babies were born Jan. 26, 2009 and are the longest-living octuplets in the world.

Kamrava’s attorney, Henry Fenton, acknowledged at the hearing that his client had made bad choices but contended that the flood of negative publicity brought on by the case prompted the revocation proceedings.

It was unclear when the board would make its decision. The process could take up to 60 days, with Kamrava and his attorney notified first.