England: Woman wins rights to give birth to grandchild

The woman, “Mrs M”, claimed one of her daughter’s final wishes before shed died of cancer in 2011 was for her eggs to be fertilised with donor sperm and implanted into her mother’s womb.

The Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority’s (HFEA) statutory approvals committee refused to issue a “special direction” allowing the eggs to leave London, saying there is not enough evidence of the late daughter’s supposed wishes.

But Sir James Munby, Lady Justice Arden and Lord Justice Burnett in the Court of Appeal allowed the woman and her husband’s appeal and have sent the case back to the HFEA for reconsideration.

The authority could come to the same decision as before but will be required to take into account factors cited by the appeal judges.

Natalie Gamble, solicitor for the couple, said: “The ruling means that the HFEA will now need to consider again whether to exercise its discretion to permit export of the eggs.

“They must take into account the Court of Appeal’s conclusions, and since A’s lack of consent was the reason for their previous refusal we hope that a positive decision will follow shortly.”

Counsel for the Ms, Jenni Richards QC, told the court that “all available evidence” indicated the daughter wanted the mother to have her child following her death. Before she died in June 2011, she had consented to the eggs being removed and stored but had failed to fill out the official paperwork.

Catherine Callaghan, representing the HFEA, said the court’s only role was to determine whether Mr Justice Ouseley in the High Court had wrongly concluded that the body acted lawfully and rationally in refusing to export the frozen eggs to the US.

The HFEA must also pay the legal costs of Mr and Mrs M, estimated as being in excess of £100,000.