Mimi Lee will no longer be able to have a biological child. This 46-year-old American, who became sterile after being touched by breast cancer, was refused by the American justice when she asked to use the embryos she had frozen with her ex-husband. The San Francisco Superior Court justified its decision on the basis of the agreement signed between Mimi Lee and her ex-husband Stephen Findley, in 2010. This stipulated that the five embryos that the couple had frozen before Mimi Lee was ill and undergoing treatment are destroyed in the event of a divorce.
The legal battle that began since the couple’s divorce in 2013 has therefore ended in disqualification for the 40-year-old who must give up her frozen embryos. This judgment could set a precedent and help judges decide in other similar cases in the United States.
In France too, the fate of frozen embryos, which makes it possible to keep “supernumerary” embryos, is strictly regulated. Embryo transfer (reimplantation of embryos into the uterine cavity via the IVF) cannot take place without the agreement of both spouses. In the event of separation of the couple (divorce, death), frozen embryos cannot be transferred.
Each year, the couple with frozen embryos is invited to decide on a new transfer, to keep them for one more year (by making a written request). If the couple does not want any more children, they have the choice between stopping conservation, donation for another couple or for medical research.
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