The Adobe Flash Player is required to view this multimedia interactive. Get it here.

KMC’s reproductive clinic keeps policy barring unmarried women

The church-affiliated hospital provides  in vitro services only to married couples.

Karri O'Reilly was denied reproductive services at Kettering Reproductive Medicine because she is unmarried. Staff photo by Jim Noelker

JIM NOELKER/Karri O'Reilly Karri O'Reilly was denied reproductive services at Kettering Reproductive Medicine because she is unmarried. Staff photo by Jim Noelker

ENLARGE PHOTO

Man, 68, drowns at Caesar Creek Lake
5/26/12
Water rescues prompt warning from health officials
5/25/12
Beach Waterpark sued for failure to deliver
5/25/12
Raleigh Trammell’s defense opens in felony trial
5/25/12
UD to move satellite campus to Dublin
5/25/12
> More headlines

By Ben Sutherly, Staff Writer Updated 2:55 PM Friday, May 21, 2010

DAYTON — Kettering Medical Center said Thursday, May 20, that it will not change its practice of serving only married couples at Kettering Reproductive Medicine.

The hospital reviewed that policy after questioning from Karri O’Reilly of Dayton, who was denied in vitro fertilization services by the clinic because she is single. The Dayton Daily News reported on the controversy in November.

Kettering Reproductive Medicine is billed as “Dayton’s only full-service reproductive center with all services at one convenient location.” It had 4,419 patient visits in 2009, and provides services such as in vitro fertilization and intrauterine insemination.

In a prepared statement, KMC said the reproductive clinic’s policy had been in place for more than 10 years. Medical staff, academics, clergy and others comprised the team; their names were not immediately available, KMC said.

“This team evaluated the practices of other faith-based organizations, consulted an ethicist from a non-faith-based system, and examined the Seventh-Day Adventist Church beliefs on assisted human reproduction,” the statement reads. KMC is affiliated with the church.

After meeting several times, the team recommended that the reproductive clinic’s policy of serving only married couples, and married women under age 50, remain in place. KMC’s executive council agreed.

“Our policy was thoroughly considered,” KMC spokesman Kevin Lavoie said. “There are other centers in the United States that have a similar policy. We meet all regulatory requirements.”

“That doesn’t make it right,” said O’Reilly, 40, a film producer who has since undergone a round of fertility treatments in Cincinnati and is now pursuing domestic adoption.

She said the policy discriminates not only against her and other single women, but against homosexual couples.

She has looked into the possibility of — and plans to pursue — state legislation that would ban such a policy.

“When you encounter obvious discrimination, directed toward yourself or others, you have an obligation to speak up about it,” she said.

Share this article