News

By Gudrun Schultz

  DUBLIN, Ireland, December 22, 2006 (LifeSiteNews.com) – A woman who was denied the right to use three frozen embryos by her estranged husband will take her fight to the Supreme Court, the Irish Times reported yesterday.

  The embryos were conceived during IVF treatments in 2001, which resulted in the birth of one child. The couple signed a joint-consent form on the storage of the surplus embryos. The woman and her husband separated after he had an affair. He refused to give permission for the woman to use the embryos, stored in the Sims Fertility Clinic in Rathgar, Dublin, in an attempt to have another child.

  A High Court ruling in November said the frozen embryos were not protected under Ireland’s law granting right-to-life protection to unborn children. Justice Brian McGovern decided the term “unborn” did not refer to a frozen embryo, but meant only an unborn child, including a fertilized egg only after it was implanted in the womb.

“There has been no evidence … to establish that it was ever in the mind of the people voting on the Eight Amendment to the Constitution that ‘unborn’ meant anything other than a fetus or child within the womb,” Justice McGovern said.

  The woman’s lawyer, Alan Daveron, said his client had grounds for appeal and confirmed the case would be presented to the Supreme Court.

”“My client states that it is never easy to lose litigation, especially litigation which concerns the fundamental issues at stake in this case presenting uniquely difficult questions of law, medicine and science,” Daveron said.

“She is nevertheless determined to appeal so that this issue may finally be determined in the interests of her family and indeed, in the wide public interest.

  See previous LifeSiteNews coverage:

  Test Tube Babies Have No Inherent Right to Life Rules Irish High Court
  https://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2006/nov/06111702.html

  Ireland Couple Joins Battle over Ownership of Frozen Embryos
  https://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2006/mar/06031401.html