Doc Who Aborted Wrong Fetus Loses License

Ob-gyn terminated healthy twin in first attempt at procedure
By Rob Quinn,  Newser Staff
Posted Apr 14, 2010 8:30 AM CDT
Doc Who Aborted Wrong Fetus Loses License
Kachinas blamed the error on ultrasound equipment.   (Shutter Stock)

It sounds too awful to be true: A mom who had undergone in vitro fertilization learns that one of the twins she's carrying has congenital defects, and opts to abort it. Her doctor performs the procedure—but aborts the wrong fetus. So goes the case of Sarasota doctor Matthew Kachinas, who lost his medical license this week, reports the St. Petersburg Times. Kachinas blamed low-resolution ultrasound equipment for the 2006 incident.

The physician and geneticist who pioneered the selective termination procedure, in which one of multiple fetuses is terminated with an injection, says that it requires expertise few doctors have and that he had never, in 25 years of practice, heard of a similar case. Kachinas was involuntarily hospitalized following the hearing after he told a reporter he was going to commit suicide.
(More abortion stories.)

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