Women launch high court challenge over right to use frozen embryos

TWO women who want to use their frozen embryos to have children yesterday came face-to-face in court with their former partners who have withdrawn consent for their use in IVF treatment.

Natallie Evans and Lorraine Hadley are challenging on human rights grounds a law which says both parties must consent to the storage and use of the embryos created from a man’s sperm and a woman’s eggs.

The country’s leading woman judge, Dame Elizabeth Butler-Sloss, president of the High Court’s Family Division, set a date to hear the full case some time in the New Year and ordered the embryos remain in storage until the High Court case.