UK Court Says Widower Can Use Late Wife’s Frozen Embryo for Surrogate
(Link): Widower wins right to have baby using embryo created with his late wife
Landmark ruling allows Ted Jennings, 38, to use embryo to have child via a surrogate
May 5, 2022
An investment manager is fighting for the right to have a baby using the last remaining embryo he created with his late wife, after they spent a years desperately trying to have children.
Widower Ted Jennings, 38, of Highbury, north London, used his sperm to create multiple embryos with Fern-Marie Choya during several rounds of IVF treatments between 2013 and 2018.
He has now asked Mrs Justice Theis at the High Court to rule that it would be lawful for him to place the last embryo – which was created in 2018 and has been stored – ‘in treatment with a surrogate mother’.
But lawyers representing the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority said Mr Jennings’ application should be dismissed.
They argued that it would not be lawful to use the embryo because Mr Jennings’ accountant wife, who died in 2019, had not provided written consent.
(Link): UK court says widower can use late wife’s frozen embryo for surrogate
Ted Jennings said his wife previously agreed upon using their embryos if she were to pass
June 23, 2022
By Haley Chi-Sing
A U.K. High Court judge ruled in favor of a man requesting to use his late wife’s frozen embryo with a surrogate on Wednesday.
Ted Jennings, 38, had submitted his application to the High Court after his wife, Fern-Marie Choya, died suddenly in 2019 while pregnant with twins and did not give written consent as to how her embryos could be used following her untimely death.
The couple had previously engaged in fertility treatments, according to The Guardian. Choya later became pregnant with twins and died suddenly 18 weeks into her pregnancy after experiencing complications.
Jennings and Choya had consented to use her embryos if she were to pass, The Guardian reported. However, her forms stated she should seek additional information if she intended on using the eggs or embryos in someone else’s treatment if she to were to die.
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(Link): First Baby Born Using Uterus Transplanted From Deceased Donor
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