Historic precedent.. A British court allows a man to have children from his deceased wife
The UK Supreme Court has ruled in favor of allowing a widower to attempt a child with his deceased wife by using an IVF-fertilized egg from his late wife through a surrogate mother, setting a historic precedent in this regard.
Ted Jennings, 38, said he had the consent of his wife, Verne Marie Chuya, who died at the age of 40 in 2019 while pregnant with twins.
The court ruled that Jennings did not need written consent from his wife, Chua, to proceed with the attempt, and the Human Fertilization and Embryology Authority denied his request.
Judge Theiss said she was "convinced" of the prior consent of Chuya (the late wife) to use the fertilized egg in the event of her death.
Ms. Chuya was not given sufficient opportunity to give consent in writing because the form she filled out during the IVF process was “completely unclear” on how to do so.
According to the BBC, Ms Choa, who was working as an accountant, died "tragically and without warning" in February 2019, just 18 weeks into her pregnancy, after experiencing complications and suffering from a ruptured uterus.
Denying Mr. Jennings the opportunity to use the egg would "have a final, lifelong impact", and his case would not "open the door" in the field.
Jennings, who lives in Highbury, north London, had told the judge he did not remember he or his wife having "any negative feelings about paternity if a surrogate mother, donated eggs or adopted a child".
"Our emotional journey has been the impotence of infertility exacerbated by a sense of injustice in light of all the other medical problems we already had," he said.
He added, "We eventually came to the conviction that giving the option of IVF the best chance we have, it will be the last time and our attempt, and the last fertilized egg will be saved in order to have a child through surrogacy."
Jennings told the judge that he and his wife discussed what should happen if Choa died or she or the twins were in danger of death, and Choa was "insistent" that the girls should be saved if they were to be chosen.
The couple, who moved to the UK from Trinidad, had a miscarriage problem in two previous pregnancies.
They later experimented with IVF and re-mortgaged their home to pay for private treatment
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