Does a women have a right to an frozen embryo after the relationship fails?

Question

I watched an article this morning about a woman who had a frozen embryo from a relationship that ended 5 years ago. She is demanding to use it. The man said no. In court the man won.
Personally I agree with the courts.

Answer 1

No man should be made to have a child that he doesn't want, I feel sorry for the woman involved but that's ethics and the court was right.

Answer 2

So do I, very strongly agree with the legal decision by this court. It is a victory for common sense over blind emotion!

Also on the news it has been reported that the rise of single-parent families has increased in the UK and I don't expect it's much better in other western countries - especially the Kindergarten Continent - although Holland does have five times less teenage pregnancies than England, because they have a more mature and less paranoid sex education policy in their schools - but that's whole nother story!

This is definitely not a good thing! Coupled with so called 'sperm-banks' giving out anonymous sperm from men wanting to make some money to infertile couples and homosexuals I definitely feel the judges made the right decision.

This woman needs to get some psychological councelling and then find another man who is not too fussed about having children of his own or better still, already has some from a previous relationship and go and adopt a child - there are plenty of orphaned children around the world, often in terrible and even life-threatening conditions, desperate for a loving mother and father!

It is very refreshing that this European Court had the gutts to stand up for logic and didn't give into the lefty do-gooder brigade!

What might be a good idea for the future though, is if either or both the following were implimented:-

1) when couples enter into these 'frozen embyro' contracts, it is mandatory that they sign something like a 'prenuptual agreement'

or

2) They only allow women to freeze eggs - thereby negating the whole embyro problem in the first place!

Answer 3

If this is the case I have recently seen the woman had cancer, before she started treatment that would leave her infertile her and her partner had embryos frozen to use once her treatment was over. If she had known that they would split up she could have frozen just eggs, which would make the current situation much easier. But they split up and now she has no hope of ever having the children that have been created and frozen. I think her ex partner is extremely selfish and I cannot imagine never have been able to have children and the heart ache that they are already created but will never be able to live. I find this a very hard situation to decide on, yes if the father really doesnt want her to have his children it i his choice and he has the right to decide this, but if she hadnt had cancer the children would have been created and alive now. I really feel for this woman.

Answer 4

This is such a sad case. I am sure that this lady would not now choice to make this man her childs father now if it was not for the fact that whitout it she will never be able to have her own child,

I am sorry but I do not agree with the court. At the time the eggs where frozen giving her her last chance at being a parent he agreed to the procedure. At that time he could have looked at the long term picture. I know that hindsight is a maverlous thing but this really is a sad case.

I was so pleased to see that now eggs can be frozen unfertilised and hopefully that will stop any problems like this in the future,

Answer 5

i dont know all the details on the case but presumably as they are fertilised embryos its not just frozen sperm, then presumably he consented to having children at some point. So why is it that he now gets to change his mind? If he was unsure about being a dad he shouldnt have fertilised the embryos. After all if he had impregnated her, he wouldnt be able to change his mind so what is the difference here??

I am open to debate on this issue. However, had this been a case about frozen sperm it would be a different situation - he would definitely have the right to say no. But these are embryos - the deed has already been done, no??

Answer 6

I am very much against abortion but this is for embryos that are INSIDE the womb. Embroys in a lab are not been implanted in the womb and in my opinion are not yet living. So you just can not put this in the same category as abortion which I think IS murder. Did any of you people know that many of the embroys that die in IVF are actually needed but simply just do not make it? If they die naturally - is this murder? Baring in mind that even if these embroys had been conceived naturally they still would have died! Do you people believe that people that have natural miscarriage's have murdered their baby for failing to provide the necessities of life? And by the way - I hope that those of you who said IVF is unnatural and shouldn't be used NEVER have to go through it - I really do.

Answer 7

Absolutely. For once the courts are correct. Apart from all the other factors the man would be liable for the maintenance of a child in a relationship that he did not want. With the creation yet another single parent family in a country that already has the highest rate in Europe!

Answer 8

Yes i agree with the court also. This would have been really unfair on the man in question if it had gone ahead. I think trying to process the claim through the CSA would have blown the lastt of there computing capability. Fathers for justice wouldn't have known what to do either.

Answer 9

I totally agree with the Court too. A woman has a right whether or not to keep a child, so in this case, a man does a choice, so he should be given the choice. Obviously, he didnt want to be related in any way to this woman, so i think he is totally within his rights to object and have them destroyed.

Answer 10

I agree with the court decision as well. I think at the beginning of fertility treatment you & your partner sign papers that cover what happens to sperm/eggs/embryos in the event of death & relationship breakdown.