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A Polish woman has been allowed to continue her pregnancy using in vitro fertilisation, despite her ex-husband’s objections.
In what is believed to be the first such decision in Poland, the court allowed a woman to continue her pregnancy through IVF (in vitro fertilisation) despite opposition from her ex-husband.
Married and divorced: Polish couple fights for frozen embryo
While still married, the couple faced fertility issues and turned to IVF in the hope of conceiving a child. As a result, four embryos were created for the couple; two of the embryos proved defective. Of the remaining two, one was transferred into the woman’s body, resulting in the subsequent birth of the couple’s daughter. The other embryo was frozen for possible future use.
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When going through the divorce, as part of their agreement, the husband left the wife the right to decide about the frozen embryo, provided that she would take care of the childcare costs before and after the birth. The couple had been divorced for two years when the ex-husband broke the agreement and refused to give his consent for the transfer of the embryo to the mother’s body.
As the woman wanted to take advantage of this opportunity for a new pregnancy, her ex-husband declared that he would only allow her the alternative of completely discarding the embryo or putting it up for adoption.
Single mother by IVF; Polish opinions on frozen embryos
In a country where abortion is a serious crime, despite the growing number of protesters fighting for women’s reproductive rights, this disconcerting situation was met with support for the woman. She took the matter to court and enlisted the help of Oirdoluris; a prominent ultra-conservative legal group.
Ordoluris often condemns the use of IVF, but in this case they showed support for the woman, seeing that the already conceived embryo had to be protected. “While there is no doubt that IVF is an unethical method with low effectiveness and dehumanisation of children,” as the group stated, the fertilisation procedure had already taken place, therefore “there is a child frozen in liquid nitrogen waiting for the chance to be born,” said Paweł Scafraniec of Ordoluris.
