A 60 year old woman in the UK won a Court of Appeal battle against the UK regulator's refusal to allow her to take her only child's eggs to a US clinic. In a bid to fulfil her daughter's final wish, she wanted to use her frozen eggs to give birth to her own grandchild.
While the woman had lost a High Court case last year, she was subsequently granted permission to challenge the decision at the Court of Appeal in London. Fertility regulator, Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority had said the daughter's eggs could not be released from storage as she had not given her full written consent before she succumbed to bowel cancer at 28.
In the latest proceedings, the mother's lawyers told judges she wanted to fulfil her daughter's wishes to carry a child created from her frozen eggs and "raise the child". Counsel Jenni Richards said that if the judges did not overturn the High Court's ruling, the "inevitable" consequence would be that the eggs "will simply be allowed to perish". She argued there was "clear evidence" of what the daughter wanted to happen to her eggs after she died, and that "all available evidence" showed she wanted her mother "to have her child after death".
The HFEA which was opposed to the appeal said, "The law requires us to consider whether there is sufficient evidence of informed consent. After looking at the matter in great detail we decided that there wasn't a decision which was supported by the High Court last September. "
