England: woman to go to High Court over daughter’s eggs

The 59-year old woman and her 58-year old husband, who are both choosing to remain anonymous, want to transport the eggs from London to a New York clinic where she can receive fertility treatment at a cost of around £60,000.

The woman claims one of her daughter’s final wishes was for her eggs to be fertilised with donor sperm and implanted into her mother’s womb.

The Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority’s (HFEA) statutory approvals committee refused to issue a “special direction” allowing the eggs to leave London, saying there is not enough evidence of the late daughter’s supposed wishes.

The couple is contesting the decision.

The mother submitted an application for judicial review, which was listed only as “M v the HFEA”.

The HFEA has now confirmed the case against them will proceed to judicial review and be heard in the Administrative Court at a future date.

Public documents show the couple’s daughter was diagnosed with bowel cancer at 23 and chose to freeze and store three eggs at IVF Hammersmith in 2008.

Although the daughter gave consent for her eggs to be used after her death, she failed to indicate explicitly before her death how she wanted them to be used, rendering her consent forms invalid.

She made no further instructions before her death in 2011, when she left behind no partner.

The HFEA’s statutory appeals committee said the “strongest and only evidence” of this daughter’s purported wishes is a reported conversation with her mother while she was in hospital five years ago.

The eggs will be destroyed by February 2018 if the couple’s legal bid does not succeed.