A Long Island, N.Y., matrimonial referee is weighing a gag order in the divorce case of a Nassau County surgeon who wants his estranged wife to pay $1.5 million for the kidney he donated to her.

Referee A. Jeffrey Grob considered an application by Douglas Rothkopf, the lawyer for the wife, Dawnell Batista, to prohibit “disparaging and denigrating” statements made by Dr. Richard Batista or his attorney, Dominick Barbara, regarding the couple’s four-year-old divorce case.