Hagar Izak Levy has filed a civil lawsuit for up to NIS 2.5 million against Prof. Yaakov לברון, a fertility specialist, over harm she says she suffered in the “Georgia egg-import affair.” The suit was submitted to the Jerusalem or central Israeli civil court in Rishon Lezion, and it alleges medical negligence and severe emotional damage. Levy said, “I do not wish on any woman what I went through.”
According to the article, לברון previously admitted in a plea deal to operating an unlicensed laboratory and handling embryos unlawfully. He was linked to a scheme in which eggs were imported from Georgia, and he, Prof. David Bieder, and Dr. Pavel Aksitson were charged with serious offenses involving embryos held illegally. In the criminal case, לברון was not given a conviction, but he was ordered to pay Levy NIS 55,000. The Health Ministry did not revoke his medical license after the case.
Levy said she came to לברון at age 41, already a mother of two, hoping to expand her family. She was treated for two intensive years and believed the embryos were being stored in a licensed facility, but later learned that embryos had been kept in a nonauthorized setting. She said she paid tens of thousands of shekels and left with nothing, adding that he used the “lowest place” of women for money and did whatever he wanted with her body.
Her lawyer, Adv. Adi Weiss, says the lawsuit is based on a medical opinion and argues that poor storage likely damaged the embryos and caused repeated failed treatments. The complaint also alleges the clinic offered sex selection for an extra 2,000 euros, which is illegal in Israel, and charged Levy for storage at a hospital even though the embryos were never transferred there. Weiss called the conduct “extremely outrageous” and said the embryos were effectively the plaintiffs’ children.
No defense statement had been filed when the report was published. Before sentencing in the criminal case, לברון told the Tel Aviv-Yafo magistrate court judge, “I express remorse and regret everything that happened and from the outset I took full responsibility.” The Health Ministry said criminal proceedings do not prevent disciplinary action under the Physicians Ordinance and urged affected patients to file complaints.
