Frozen Embryo Legal Battle

Battle over embryo highlights family law’s new fertility frontier

Source Financial Post


Family law is ever-changing. In one of the summer’s most interesting family law decisions, SH v. DH, Justice Robert Del Frate of the Ontario Superior Court was asked to decide the fate of an embryo which the husband and wife had purchased from a fertility centre in the state of Georgia. The parties signed a contract and bought donated eggs and sperm for US$11,500.

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Canada, Frozen Embryo Legal Battle

Why Canada court’s ruling on contested embryo is wrong – but also right

Source BioNews

Over the past couple of weeks, much ink has been spilled over the recent Ontario Superior Court decision, SH v DH (see BioNews 961). It is precedent-setting in Ontario and across Canada, being the first published decision determining who may use frozen embryos upon the dissolution of a marriage.

The Ontario court last month awarded the former couple’s frozen embryo to the wife, DH, who wants to use it to become pregnant. This ruling was reached by regarding the embryo – which is not genetically related to either spouse – as ‘property’. While I agree in principle with the result and would like to see DH use the embryo for reasons set out later, based on my interpretation of the Section 8 (Consent) Regulations to the Assisted Human Reproduction Act, I believe the decision may be incorrect.

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Frozen Embryo Legal Battle

Woman must turn over embryo for estranged husband to destroy: judges

Source NY Post

An appeals court has taken away a Manhattan woman’s frozen embryo — and given it to her estranged husband to destroy.

In April 2017, Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Deborah Kaplan granted Bat-El Yishay Finkelstein sole custody of the embryo that a fertility clinic had created with her egg and her husband Yoram Finkelstein’s sperm.

The judge based her decision in part on the fact that the embryo represented the now 53-year-old wife’s “last chance to become a biological parent.”

Finkelstein, a 63-year-old architect, challenged the ruling.

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Frozen Embryo Legal Battle

Man fighting ex over frozen embryos: I know the pain of growing up without a dad

Source New York Post

The pain of growing up fatherless is behind a Brooklyn man’s fight to stop his ex from using their frozen embryos to get pregnant, according to new court papers.

In an increasingly bitter legal battle, Kevin Heldt ran to court last month to stop Ilissa Watnik from getting pregnant with fertilized eggs they’d been storing at a Manhattan fertility clinic.

Watnik, 42, argued the couple had already agreed she could have the genetic material if they broke up, and accused Heldt of using legal maneuvers as a “weapon” to run out her biological clock.

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