BBC NEWS | Health | Woman loses final embryo appeal

BBC NEWS | Health | Woman loses final embryo appeal
Woman loses final embryo appeal

Ms Evans latest appeal represented her last chance


Ms Evans' reaction
A woman left infertile after cancer therapy has lost her fight to use embryos fertilised by an ex-partner.
Natallie Evans, from Trowbridge, Wilts, and Howard Johnston began IVF treatment in 2001 but he withdrew consent for the embryos to be used after they split up.

She turned to the European courts after exhausting the UK legal process.

Ms Evans, 35, said she was "distraught" after the Grand Chamber of the European Court ruling, but Mr Johnston said "common sense had prevailed".

Ms Evans was diagnosed with ovarian cancer in 2001, but six of the couple's fertilised embryos were frozen and stored prior to her treatment.

I am distraught at the court's decision. It is very hard for me to accept the embryos will be destroyed

Natallie Evans


Medical expert reaction
Q&A: Embryo case

But she and Mr Johnston, who lives in Gloucester, split up in 2002 and he wrote to the clinic asking for the embryos to be destroyed.

Ms Evans took the case to the High Court in 2003 asking to be allowed to use them without Mr Johnston's permission.

She has argued he had already consented to their creation, storage and use, and should not be allowed to change his mind.

Current UK laws require both the man and woman to give consent, and allows either party to withdraw that consent up to the point where the embryos are implanted.

Ms Evans lost both the case and the appeal and was told she could not take the case to the House of Lords.


Mr Johnston said common sense had prevailed

She then appealed to the European Court of Human Rights, which again ruled against her a year ago.

Her appeal to the Grand Chamber of the European Court under three articles of the European Convention of Human Rights represented her last chance to save the embryos.

The court ruled unanimously that there had been no breach of the right to life, but on the right to respect for private and family life and on the prohibition of discrimination the 17 judges ruled 13 to four.

After the decision, Ms Evans said: "I am distraught at the court's decision. It is very hard for me to accept the embryos will be destroyed."

But Mr Johnston said: "I feel common sense has prevailed. Of course I am sympathetic, but I wanted to choose when, if and with whom I would have a child."

HAVE YOUR SAY
Just because something is scientifically possible, does not make it socially justifiable

Mohan, London


'I'm distraught'
Send us your comments

Dr Allan Pacey, secretary of the British Fertility Society, said: "I think it was the only sensible decision which the Grand Chamber could come to.

"UK law is clear. It is a principle of shared responsibility."

But he added: "We feel dreadfully for Natallie."

Dr Tony Calland, chairman of the British Medical Association's medical ethics committee, said the decision was welcome.

"Having a child is a life-long undertaking to which both partners should be fully committed."