UCI Doctor Is Scapegoat

* Re: “Regents Fire UCI Doctor Linked to Fertility Scandal,” March 16:

Shame on the University of California Board of Regents.

Their dismissing Dr. Sergio Stone from UCI demonstrates hypocrisy and political expediency rather than the integrity and leadership we would have hoped for.

We know from personal experience that Stone is a brilliant physician and a caring healer. It pains us deeply to see him made out to be the scapegoat for the sins of others.

There were, after all, three doctors in the fertility clinic at UCI. Two liquidated their local assets and fled the country. One, Stone, did not. Doesn’t that tell us something about who was guilty and who was not?

It would certainly be neater if the guilty parties could always be brought to justice. Unfortunately, life does not always work that way.

But that’s no excuse for crucifying Stone just because the regents can’t punish the real culprits. Whatever sins Stone might have committed, they did not warrant the academic and professional equivalent of capital punishment meted out by the regents.

STEVE and MARIA DZIDA

Costa Mesa