Judge reserves decision on fate of frozen embryos

JUDGMENT has been reserved in the case of a 41-year-old woman who is seeking to have frozen embryos created following IVF treatment returned to her.

At the conclusion of the landmark legal case at the High Court yesterday, Mr Justice Brian McGovern said he was reserving judgment but hoped to reach a decision “as soon as possible”.

The hearing ended following eight days of evidence by scientists and medical practitioners on the fate of three embryos in frozen storage in the SIMS fertility clinic in Rathgar, Dublin.

The woman is seeking an order preventing the destruction of the embryos.

She wants the embryos returned to her and implanted in her uterus with a view to becoming pregnant.

The embryos were created during fertility treatment undertaken by her and her now estranged husband, as a result of which one of their two children was born. The second was born naturally.

The woman’s 44-year-old husband said in evidence that he wants no more children with his wife and is opposed to the embryos being returned to her.

Counsel for the woman, Inge Clissman SC, said Article 40.3.3 of the Constitution requiring the State to vindicate the right to life of the unborn with “due regard” to the right to life of the mother, included the embryo.

She said the amendment gave “a wide and complete protection to the unborn”, and was more than just something to “copper-fasten the ban on abortion”.

She added there was no question that “the results of IVF treatment can be excluded” from the interpretation of that article.

Counsel for the Attorney General, Donal O’Donnell SC, said Article 40.3.3 does not exist for “pre-fertilised embryos not in the reproductive system”.

Counsel for the husband, John Rogers SC, said this case represented the first time that the “depth and the extent of Article 40.3.3 was being decided”.