Cha vs. Flamm court drama continues

Written byBob Grant

| 2 min read

A fertility researcher who published a study suggesting that prayer improves in vitro fertilization success rates has renewed his legal battle against an obstetrician/gynecologist who has criticized his work. Kwang-Yul Cha, a fertility researcher and chancellor of the medical school at Pochon CHA University in Korea, filed a motion on Tuesday (Dec 18) for a new trial after a judge linkurl:threw out;http://www.the-scientist.com/blog/display/53876/ his defamation lawsuit against University of California, Irvine, Ob/Gyn Bruce Flamm last month. The motion requests a new trial based on new evidence discovered by Cha's attorneys, who claim that Flamm's criticism constitutes a personal attack on Cha. __The Scientist__ obtained a copy of the motion, which highlights a DVD recording of Flamm delivering a speech in which he criticizes Cha's 2001 linkurl:study;http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/sites/entrez?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&list_uids=11584476&dopt=AbstractPlus linking prayer to in vitro fertilization success. Flamm delivered the speech at a convention held by linkurl:Atheist Alliance International;http://www.atheistalliance.org/ earlier this year, and according to Cha's motion, the lecture captures "Dr. Flamm's personal crusade against Dr. Cha and the 2001 prayer study." Cha's attorneys did not obtain the DVD until after the original suit was dropped in November, according to the motion. "I don't have a copy of the DVD but as I recall my talk was a humorous critique of the alleged 'miracle study' aimed at showing its absurdity," Flamm wrote in an Email to __The Scientist__. "In spite of the fact that Cha was first author of the physics-defying publication I think very little of the [Atheist Alliance Convention speech] focused on him." Cha linkurl:sued;http://www.the-scientist.com/news/display/53709/ Flamm back in August over an linkurl:opinion piece;http://www.obgynnews.com/article/PIIS0029743707702021/fulltext the latter wrote in the March 15, 2007, issue of __Ob. Gyn. News__ outlining events surrounding the controversial IVF/prayer study. That suit centered on a single sentence Flamm wrote in reference to Cha and his two coauthors originally listed on the IVF/prayer study. The sentence read: "This may be the first time in history that all three authors of a randomized, controlled study have been found guilty of fraud, deception, and/or plagiarism." In the piece, Flamm also calls for the study's retraction from the __Journal of Reproductive Medicine__. Cha's spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Meet the Author

Bob Grant

From 2017 to 2022, Bob Grant was Editor in Chief of The Scientist, where he started in 2007 as a Staff Writer. Before joining the team, he worked as a reporter at Audubon and earned a master’s degree in science journalism from New York University. In his previous life, he pursued a career in science, getting a bachelor’s degree in wildlife biology from Montana State University and a master’s degree in marine biology from the College of Charleston in South Carolina. Bob edited Reading Frames and other sections of the magazine.

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