• Back to Menu
  
  
• Home
  
  
• Embryo Dilemma
• Licence to Clone

Embryo Dilemma

Before Natalie Evans, aged 30, had her ovaries removed because of cancer, she received fertility treatment so that she and her partner, Howard Johnston, could produce embryos. The embryos were then frozen before she had treatment for the cancer.

However, the relationship subsequently broke up and Mr Johnston wrote to the IVF clinic to ask them to destroy the embryos. Miss Evans, for whom this is the only chance of having her own children, is now fighting for the right to use the embryos.

Those who criticise IVF claim that the battle is the inevitable result of treating babies like 'commodities'.

The current law governing fertility clinics requires both parties to consent before treatment can go ahead. If either party withdraws that consent, then the clinics are legally obliged to get rid of the frozen embryos (Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act 1990).

According to the Daily Mail, "Medical ethics expert Dr Jacqueline Laing said the wrangle was an inevitable result of moral and ethical issues raised by the fertility industry."