After IVF, a mom gave birth to the wrong baby. At issue: the exchange of the embryos of two couples by the medical teams of a clinic.
- In 2015, 191 medically assisted procreation centers were active in France.
- Coverage of ART techniques by Social Security is the same for everyone: heterosexual couple, couple made up of 2 women, unmarried woman.
In France, more than 23,000 children were born thanks to medically assisted procreation (MAP) in 2012 according to theNational Institute for Demographic Studies (INED). Three-quarters are from in vitro fertilization (IVF). This technique consists of bringing sperm into contact with oocytes outside the woman’s body in order to form an embryo. Generally, this is done in the laboratory, in a test tube. Once the egg is grown and the embryo(s) obtained, up to two of them will be transferred to the woman’s uterus within two to five days.
In England, a couple used this technique in 2018. For Daphna and her husband, Alexander, IVF worked and she gave birth to their second child, a little girl, in 2019. A beautiful story that will quickly be turned upside down…
The couple files a complaint against the clinic
From the start in the hospital, the couple are surprised by the color of the skin and the hair of the little girl, darker than the rest of the family. Without paying any more attention to this, the parents go home and raise their baby. But everything is turned upside down a few months later when the couple learns that it is not their baby… At the time of the IVF, the medical team implanted the embryo of another couple in Daphna. And conversely, that of Alexander and Daphna was implanted in another woman. The baby to which Daphna therefore gave birth was not hers. Today, the couple is filing a complaint against the clinic where the IVF took place.
The babies were returned to their biological parents
The other parents affected by this error have obviously also been informed. The two couples and the young children met several times and, at the beginning of the year 2020, they decided to take back their biological children. Today, the two families live very close – only ten minutes away – and have very strong ties. “It’s a blessing that we’re all on the same page, explains Alexander, the dad, to the newspaper The Sun. Since then, we have spent all of our vacations together and every birthday. We kinda mixed up our families”.
Up to 4 IVF and 6 artificial inseminations reimbursed at 100%
In France, ART acts are 100% covered by health insurance up to the age of 43 for women, whether they are heterosexual couples, lesbians or single mothers-to-be. According to law, the mother has the right to perform up to four IVF procedures for each child. In other words, if she does three IVFs for her first child and wants a second, she will again have four attempts reimbursed.
In addition to IVF, there are two other ART techniques: artificial insemination and embryo reception. For the first, the medical act consists in depositing the sperm (of the spouse or of a donor) in the uterus of the woman to facilitate the meeting between the sperm and the ovum. Fertilization then takes place naturally. Social Security reimburses up to six artificial inseminations. Finally, embryo reception is offered if there is a risk of transmission of a genetic disease to the child or if one of the members of the couple is infertile. Thus, the embryo of a donor couple or of a single woman donor is transferred into the uterus of the recipient woman.
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