Clinic in fertility battle will not destroy embryos

THE fertility clinic involved in the legal battle over the three human embryos said it would not be destroying them and that they would be kept indefinitely.

The SIMS fertility clinic in Dublin, which had the embryos frozen in a batch in 2003, said they would remain in storage pending a court order or bilateral agreement by the couple involved on what should happen to them.

High Court judge Mr Justice Brian McGovern said the three embryos were not unborn as defined by the Constitution.

He also said it was up to the Oireachtas to decide on the legal status of the embryos and that it was not up to the court to decide when unborn life begins.

Director of the SIMS Clinic Dr Tony Walsh emphasised the embryos would not be destroyed because it was against their policy, as well as Medical Council guidelines.

He also agreed that the likely effect of the judge’s decision would be that the embryos would be cryo-preserved indefinitely.

Dr Walsh also confirmed that the couple had stopped paying the storage fees since 2005.

“We are not going to do anything with the embryos because of the failure of payment,” he stressed.

The doctor said he was delighted with the court’s decision.

“It is very important that the law had now aligned itself with the thinking of the vast majority of people in medicine, especially those in reproductive medicine, that implantation is when the life process really begins,” he said.

And, he said, if it was decided that life began with a fertilised cell in a petri dish, fertility clinics would not be able to freeze embryos.

“If you don’t freeze embryos in an IVF programme your results will drop down to single figures and, if you then have to create more embryos, you cannot discard them so you will have to put them back, which means the high order multiple pregnancy rate would soar.”

He said there was a general sense of relief felt by staff at the clinic when the High Court judge announced his decision.