iStock/Thinkstock(ROME) — An Italian fertility doctor, nicknamed the “grandmothers’ obstetrician,” has been arrested for allegedly stealing a woman’s eggs.
Dr. Severino Antinori’s was placed under house arrest Saturday and had his license temporarily suspended after a 24-year-old Spanish nurse accused him of harvesting her eggs without her knowledge.
The 70-year-old gynecologist and embryologist made headlines in the 1990’s when his fertility treatments helped a 63-year-old woman give birth to a son, becoming the oldest known woman at the time to give birth.
Italian investigators say that the Spanish woman was offered a job at his clinic in Milan, and after working with him for a short time, he diagnosed her as having an ovarian cyst. According to prosecutors, this was a ruse to harvest her eggs without her knowing and the woman had her cell phone taken away before she was placed under anaesthetic and operated on without consent.
Lawyers for Dr. Antinori said he was innocent and a victim of extortion.
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