Woman seeks approval to use frozen embryos
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《英国医生杂志》
A British woman who was denied the chance to use frozen embryos produced with her former fiancé during in vitro fertilisation treatment after he withdrew his consent took her case to the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg this week.
The move is the last chance for Natallie Evans, aged 33, to have a child that is genetically hers. The six embryos were stored after she was diagnosed with ovarian cancer and her ovaries were subsequently removed.
She lodged her application at Strasbourg after losing a legal battle in the English High Court and Court of Appeal, which ruled that the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act 1990 prevented her from using the embryos to try to conceive.
The act says that both partners must consent to the use of stored embryos and that if one partner withdraws consent the embryos must be destroyed.
Ms Evans said: "I feel that I have to pursue every possible route to save my embryos. I hoped that I could have done so in the UK, but I now have no other choice but to take my case to Europe."
Her lawyers are asking for the case to be expedited because the five year limit for storage of embryos laid down by the act expires in October 2006. Cases in Strasbourg can take three years from start to finish.
Even if she wins her case against the UK government, the Strasbourg court cannot overturn a UK statute; it can only declare that it breaches a right guaranteed by the European Convention on Human Rights. The government would then be obliged to change the law, but in the meantime it is not obliged to preserve Ms Evans's embryos beyond the October 2006 expiry date.(Clare Dyer, legal correspondent)
The move is the last chance for Natallie Evans, aged 33, to have a child that is genetically hers. The six embryos were stored after she was diagnosed with ovarian cancer and her ovaries were subsequently removed.
She lodged her application at Strasbourg after losing a legal battle in the English High Court and Court of Appeal, which ruled that the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act 1990 prevented her from using the embryos to try to conceive.
The act says that both partners must consent to the use of stored embryos and that if one partner withdraws consent the embryos must be destroyed.
Ms Evans said: "I feel that I have to pursue every possible route to save my embryos. I hoped that I could have done so in the UK, but I now have no other choice but to take my case to Europe."
Her lawyers are asking for the case to be expedited because the five year limit for storage of embryos laid down by the act expires in October 2006. Cases in Strasbourg can take three years from start to finish.
Even if she wins her case against the UK government, the Strasbourg court cannot overturn a UK statute; it can only declare that it breaches a right guaranteed by the European Convention on Human Rights. The government would then be obliged to change the law, but in the meantime it is not obliged to preserve Ms Evans's embryos beyond the October 2006 expiry date.(Clare Dyer, legal correspondent)