BUCHAREST (Reuters) - Romania has detained two Israelis and a Romanian on suspicion of trafficking in human eggs in their Bucharest-based fertility clinic, organised crime prosecutors said Monday.
Prosecutors said 22 other people, members of the same organisation, were also under investigation.
"The group was focussing on identifying foreign couples eager to resort to reproduction techniques and on grabbing Romanian (women) aged 18-30 to donate ova for 800 to 1,000 lei ($270 to $335) (163 to 202 pounds) ," the department for fighting organised crime (DIICOT) said in a statement.
DIICOT said it had detained Harry Mironescu, a gynaecologist and de facto head of the clinic, his son Yair Miron and Borzea Cecilia, a Romanian employee, for 24 hours and begun a criminal investigation against them.
Romanian television said the clinic had carried out about 1,200 in vitro fertilisation procedures since opening in 1999, and that the main beneficiaries were Israeli, Italian and British couples.
Vasile Astarastoaie, head of Romania's medical watchdog Colegiul Medicilor, said the procedures were illegal because the clinic had not been authorised to carry them out.
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