
Spanish couple awarded €38,000 after IVF clinic produced the wrong kind of child
A Spanish couple has won a lawsuit in a Belgian court because an IVF clinic produced twins with the wrong genetic make-up. The parents were awarded €38,000 for “shock” and “impoverishment”.
It was the first time that a Belgian court had found that a healthy child can be the cause of loss to parents.
The first child born to the parents had beta thalassaemia, a genetic disorder which can be corrected with a bone marrow transplant. They wanted another child who could supply healthy bone marrow – a so-called “saviour sibling”.
Doctors at the Universitair Ziekenhuis in Brussels promised to do IVF and “pre-implantation genetic diagnosis” to ensure that the second child was a suitable donor. To the parents’ dismay, however, the clinic selected an embryo which proved not to be a match. Worse still, the embryo twinned.
The parents repeated the procedure at a hospital in Madrid and the fourth child proved to be a match.
Then the parents successfully sued the Belgian hospital. The judge ruled that the Spanish couple had “wanted two or three children within their family project, but under no circumstances four”.
More Stories
Does The Pill make women more fearful and anxious?
More than 150 million women worldwide use oral contraceptives. Combined OCs (COCs), made up of synthetic hormones, are the most...
A holistic look at the effect of the Pill on women
Debates about the ethical dimension of the Pill are like smoke-filled 19th Century battlefields “where ignorant armies clash by night”....
The Pill increases risk of depression amongst young women by 130%
According to a recent study in the journal Epidemiology and Psychiatric Sciences, women using birth control pills may have as...
4 women die in Indian sterilization camp. Authorities very sorry.
Double-puncture laparoscopy procedures are very popular amongst Indian women who want permanent sterilization. “The surgery is preferred over other sterilisation...
New study revives fears of ‘spermageddon’
Sperm counts around the world appear to have halved between 1973 and 2018. According to a study in the journal...
What is the limit for posthumous sperm donation?
A baby has been born in the United Kingdom from 26-year-old sperm. His 47-year-old father, Peter Hickles, describes it as...