{"id":322563,"date":"2024-12-04T16:48:34","date_gmt":"2024-12-04T22:48:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.liveaction.org\/news\/?p=322563"},"modified":"2024-12-04T16:00:16","modified_gmt":"2024-12-04T22:00:16","slug":"widower-late-wife-ivf-embryo-chance","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/widower-late-wife-ivf-embryo-chance\/","title":{"rendered":"Widower fights to give his and late wife’s remaining embryo from IVF a chance to be born"},"content":{"rendered":"
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A widowed father in the UK has won<\/a> a legal fight to give a chance at life to a child he and his wife created through IVF before her death.<\/p>\n

As told by The Telegraph<\/a>, the 45-year-old man, known as EF, married his wife, AB, just three months after they met in their mid-20s. Three years after that, they were happy to be expecting their first child, but that baby was lost to miscarriage.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were devastated, but also knew this was common,\u201d says EF. \u201cIt was only when reading her diaries later that I fully understood how hard she felt that loss.\u201d<\/p>\n

A few months later, they welcomed their next baby, a daughter, referred to as “X,” who was born three months premature. He explained, \u201cShe weighed just one and a half pounds and nearly didn\u2019t make it. My wife and I took turns to watch her tiny body 24\/7, all translucent skin and big, bulging eyes, willing her to live. \u2018She will survive, I know it,\u2019 she told me.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen doctors warned that she might have some form of disability, we weren\u2019t scared. \u2018She\u2019s our daughter, we will love her and she will be fine,\u2019 said my wife.”<\/p>\n

Baby X thrived and grew into a “profoundly gifted” child, but by the time she was five, the couple was struggling with what appears to have been secondary infertility. They opted for in vitro fertilization (IVF) to try for more children.<\/p>\n

IVF set the stage for a heartbreaking legal battle<\/strong><\/p>\n

IVF is fraught with ethical dilemmas \u2014 primarily because preborn humans<\/a> are destroyed<\/a> at a higher rate during the IVF process than abortion. Each child created through IVF has inherent value, but many are destroyed for not meeting predetermined goals set by the fertility industry. At least a million embryos remain frozen in the United States, denied their chance at life.<\/p>\n

AB and EF didn’t want to destroy embryos and wanted to give each child they created a chance at life. The court said that EF and the late AB are members of a religion only referred to as the “J religion,” which believes in the sanctity of life and that the soul exists from the moment of fertilization.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn our faith we see an embryo as a precious life form,\u201d explained EF. \u201cSo she didn\u2019t want the use of her eggs, or our jointly created embryo, to be used for [medical] training purposes.\u201d While she did not consent to her embryos being used in such a manner, she did consent to them being used for such training in the event of her death. The forms didn’t offer any other option in the event that she died before her embryos could be implanted.<\/p>\n

After implanting the first embryo, they welcomed a baby girl, referred to as “Y.”<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was the happiest day for our little family,\u201d said EF. \u201cOur eldest was delighted to be a big sister, and after all the stress of having a premature baby before, my wife and I now had a smiley, gargling delight \u2013 weighing 6lb! \u2013 chubby and strong.\u201d<\/p>\n

But that joy was short-lived.<\/p>\n