Let me birth my grandchild

This case dealt with an extra ordinary situation where the parents of a 21 year old deceased daughter were seeking for exporting her retrieved eggs to USA for the treatment.

In this case, the daughter who was diagnosed with cancer and was terminally ill, consented for the treatment to remove her eggs and store them for further use after her death.

Following her death her parents revealed that their daughter was willing to use her eggs to create an embryo using a donor sperm and implant it into her mother’s womb, so that her parents can raise the child as their grandchild.

The parents applied to HEFA (The Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority, UK) for exporting their daughter’s eggs to USA for the surrogacy treatment using her mother’s womb.

However, HEFA refused to approve their request on the basis that the daughter had only consented for the removal and storage of her eggs and did not consent or complete any formality for using her eggs for further use.

The parents sought judicial help and appealed the Court against the order passed by HEFA.

The Court allowed the appeal and set aside the HEFA order on the grounds that the mother had significantly proposed a way to recognise the posthumous child as their grandchild, hence there was no question of any legal implication as to who will be the mother of the child.

This fact outweighed the evidence of any consent required by HEFA.