In Australia, a woman unintentionally gave birth to a stranger’s child after her fertility clinic unintentionally fed her another woman’s embryos. According to Australian media, the confusion at Brisbane, Queensland’s Monash IVF has been attributed to human error.
“On behalf of Monash IVF, I want to say how truly sorry I am for what has happened,” said Michael Knaap, the CEO. He also added that the error had left everyone at the reproductive center “devastated.”
The same clinic settled with hundreds of patients last year for A$56 million (£26.8 million) whose viable embryos were destroyed.
A representative for Monash IVF stated that when the birth parents requested to move their remaining frozen embryos to a different facility in February, staff members realized something was wrong.
“Instead of finding the expected number of embryos, an additional embryo remained in storage,” ABC reported the spokesman for saying.
According to Monash, a child was born after an embryo from a different patient was inadvertently frozen and given to the incorrect individual. The clinic has forwarded the event to regulatory agencies and initiated an inquiry. According to Mr. Knaap, the clinic was certain it was a singular occurrence.
Monash IVF settled a historic class action lawsuit with 700 former patients last year for destroying embryos following erroneous genetic testing for A$56 million (£26.8 million).
About 35% of the embryos, which were truly normal and might have produced a viable pregnancy, were found to be abnormal due to the flawed screening process.
The process of in vitro fertilization, or IVF, entails taking eggs out of a woman’s ovaries and fertilizing them in a lab with sperm. The fertilized eggs are then placed inside the woman’s uterus as embryos.
In 2021, the University of New South Wales reported that 20,690 babies were born in Australia and New Zealand as a result of IVF. It is a costly procedure that is not always successful.
-Deeprows News
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