Woman Denied the Chance to Carry Her Grandchild

Court rules UK mother can't use dead daughter's eggs
By Jenn Gidman,  Newser Staff
Posted Jun 16, 2015 7:53 AM CDT
Woman Denied the Chance to Carry Her Grandchild
In this Aug. 11, 2008, file photo, a scientist works during an IVF process.   (AP Photo/PA, Ben Birchall, File)

When a UK woman was diagnosed with bowel cancer at age 23, her parents say there was one thing she wanted if she didn't survive: to have her mom carry her babies. But the High Court in London has dashed that dream after ruling that the fertilized eggs of the woman, who died at age 28 in 2011, can't be transported to the US clinic where her mother would have had them implanted, the BBC reports. Even though the daughter signed off on having her eggs stored after she died, she neglected to fill out a form that specified how the eggs were to be used, the AP reports. Presiding Justice Duncan Ouseley called it "a very sad case," but added that the daughter hadn't legally indicated she wanted her mother to be her surrogate, and that there was no proof she had considered her mom being named the legal mother of her own grandchildren or how a pregnancy would affect her mom's health, the Guardian notes.

In what a London fertility expert tells the Independent may have been the world's first such case, the woman's mother says in a statement her daughter told them, "I didn't go through IVF to save my eggs for nothing. I want you and Dad to bring them up, they will be safe with you," the BBC notes. But the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority decided last year there wasn't enough legal evidence to prove that wish, and it refused to allow the eggs to travel overseas. "This is a very sad case, and the ruling must be heartbreaking for the couple," an HFEA rep says, per the Guardian. "Our committee considered this case on three separate occasions ... but decided that there was not the kind of fully informed consent required by the law." The woman's parents can still appeal, per the BBC. (Egg-freezing coverage is now a perk for Apple and Facebook employees.)

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