Pele fertility doctor 'deceived IVF parents'

A Brazilian fertility expert who helped Pele father twins is suspected of having deceived large numbers of patients into bringing up children that are not genetically theirs.
Roger Abdelmassih is on the run from police after being convicted of sexually assaulting or raping 39 female patients at his clinic.

New evidence gathered by police and public prosecutors suggests that many of the 8,000 babies born after IVF treatment by him and his team may not be the biological children of the couples raising them. There is no suggestion this is the case with Pele.
The authorities believe that Abdelmassih, 67, misled many customers by implanting embryos formed from eggs and sperm of other people to increase his chances of success.
DNA tests have already found at least three cases where children born after IVF treatment at his clinic in Sao Paulo are not the genetic offspring of one of the paying parents.
But according to Epoca, a weekly Brazilian news magazine which has seen evidence collected by the authorities, this could be just the tip of the iceberg.
Abdelmassih treated a string of high-profile clients including Pele who fathered twins with his second wife in 1996 at the age of 55 and after having earlier undergone a vasectomy.
His clinic's IVF success rate hit 47 per cent in recent years compared to an average of around 32 per cent in Latin America and less than 30 per cent in Britain.
Such a high level of success will increase fears that Abdelmassih may have fooled large numbers of patients over a period of two decades.
Abdelmassih was sentenced to 278 years in jail in November last year after he was found guilty of attacking female patients between 1995 and 2007 but went missing after being allowed to remain free pending an appeal.