A heavy confusion of consequences. An Australian gave birth to the son of another, after his embryo was confused with that of another woman, during an in vitro fertilization (FIV), reports the media of Associated Press Australia on Thursday, April 10.
The patient, who was followed in a Brisbane clinic, was transferred an embryo that belongs to another couple. Then he gave birth to a child who was not biologically, after having used it for 9 months, everything without knowing it.
Last February, the child’s biological parents asked that the remaining embryos in the clinic were transferred to another clinic. This is where the establishment, called Monash FIV, realized its error.
“Instead of finding the number of planned embryos, there was an additional embryo for biological parents,” the clinic said in a press release.
The clinic has apologized to parents
Monash FIV then launched an internal investigation that confirmed that the embryo of a patient had been transferred to another woman. The company mentioned a human error.
Less than a week after this discovery, the parents were informed of this imbroglio and apologized from the clinic.
“As Monash FIV employees, we are all devastated and we apologize to all interested people,” said the company’s commercial director Michael Knaap. “We have carried out additional controls and we are convinced that this is an isolated incident,” he promised.
It is not the first incident for the company
Additional research is expected, as well as a series of recommendations to follow to avoid this type of incident in the future.
The embryo error was also officially informed to the Committee for Accreditation of Reproductive Techniques, State of Queensland, Australia.
This is not the first time that the Monash FIV reproduction company has been agitation. In August 2024, the company had signed an Australian $ 56 million agreement (almost 31 million euros) with more than 700 of its patients after being criticized for destroying embryos.
If the company had estimated that the embryos had genetic defects, the tests showed that it was only 35% of the destroyed embryos.
Future legal procedures?
It is unknown for the moment if the child’s biological parents or if the woman who has given him has initiated legal procedures.
For the Australian lawyer specialized in the Sarah Jefford family, this case could create a precedent. “In Australia, biological parents are supposed to be the child’s legal parents,” he explains to ABC News.
This serious mistake “raises all kinds of questions related to child care, as soon as one begins to ask who the parents are and if the child is raised by his biological parents or by the parents who have taken him and gave him birth. He becomes a nightmare,” evokes for his part, the lawyer specializes in the medical mistakes of Frances Bertram. According to her, the two interested couples would have the right to claim “very important” compensation after this incident.
Source: BFM TV
