Children born thanks to IVF pioneer find their biological father is scientist from his lab

Questions have been raised about one of the UK’s most well-known fertility doctors after two people whose parents attended his clinic reportedly made the shock discovery that their biological father is a lab scientist who worked in the same hospital as the physician.

Patrick Steptoe, who died in 1988, was an obstetrician and gynaecologist who helped develop in vitro fertilisation (IVF) and ran a fertility clinic in Oldham Hospital, Greater Manchester.

The parents of Roz Snyder, 52, and David Gertler, 51, attended the clinic around the 1970s after struggling to conceive children.

Ms Snyder and Mr Gertler were shocked after DNA tests revealed they are half-siblings, the Telegraph reported.

The pair were recently alerted by the genealogy website Ancestry that their late fathers are not their biological ones, but that they shared a biological father in Roy Hollihead, who ran a pathology laboratory one floor above Dr Steptoe’s clinic.

The 84-year-old told Ms Snyder that Dr Steptoe “used sperm from lab staff, medical students and doctors… but no records of any were kept” and told the Telegraph that he was not sure the hospital was aware of the apparent scheme.

Northern Care Alliance, the NHS trust that now runs Oldham Hospital, said it had no records of Dr Steptoe’s clinic, according to the Telegraph.

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Source: The Independent, 23 December 2024