According to an article recently posted on LifeSite.com and written by Gudrun Schultz, the European Court of Human Rights recently ruled against a woman who wanted to use her stored frozen embryos to have a baby of her own following a bout with cancer. The woman was left infertile after treatment for ovarian cancer. Her frozen embryos had been in storage with her partner’s consent. However, once the couple ended their relationship her partner withdrew consent for the embryos to be used in the future.
The woman’s lawyers argued under UK law that destruction of her six stored embryos would be a breach of her human rights.
“Under UK law, both the man and the woman must give consent for IVF procedures, and that consent can be withdrawn up until the time of implantation. There is a five-year limit on the storage of embryos after one partner withdraws consent, after which they must be destroyed.”
According to Schultz, the woman lost her case before both the UK Court of Appeals and the High Court, and she failed in her attempt to take the case before the House of Lords. "In what was a majority verdict, the UK court ruled it was her partner’s right to withdraw his consent and that his right to withdraw consent overrode the woman’s right to a family life, found in article eight of the European Convention of Human Rights."
The court also decided unanimously that the embryos did not have an independent right to life. To read more about the information contained in this article see www.lifesite.net.
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