England: judge denies woman permission to give birth to grandchild due to lack of requisite consent

The woman, 59 and her husband, 58, Mr and Mrs M, sought permission to carry out the implantation – believing it was their daughter’s dying wish.

The couple’s daugher, A, died at the age of 28 of bowel cancer. The High Court heard that she asked her mother to “carry her babies”.

But Mr Justice Ouseley refused the Ms permission to take the eggs to a fertility clinic in the US.

As A did not give full written consent to the plan before she died the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA) said the eggs, stored in Hammersmith Hospital in west London, could not be released to her parents.

Lawyers for the parents told the High Court the couple’s daughter would have been “devastated” if she knew the eggs could not be used.

However, the judge ruled that HFEA was entitled in finding that A had not given “the required consent” and also that the Ms human rights had not been breached.

They were ordered to pay £10,000 towards HFEA’s legal costs and were not given permission to appeal, with Mr Justice Ouseley saying that while he had “much sympathy” for them, he was not persuaded an appeal had much prospect of success.

A spokeswoman for the authority said: “This is a very sad case, and the ruling must be heartbreaking for the couple.

“Our committee considered this case on three separate occasions but decided that there was not the kind of fully informed consent required by the law.

“The judge has decided that the committee’s decision was correct.”