The British soap Emmerdale has decided to tackle the fear of many couples going through IVF, the theft of frozen embryos.
For anyone who is unfamilar with the show, “Emmerdale” is a British soap opera that airs on ITV in the UK. Set in the fictional village of Emmerdale in the Yorkshire Dales, it focuses on the lives of the villagers and their various dramatic storylines involving love, betrayal, family dynamics, and community events. The show has been running since 1972 and is known for its compelling characters and engaging plot twists.
In a recent episode, Emmerdale viewers witnessed Gus’s courtroom appearance for the theft of the embryos he and Rhona froze during their past relationship.
Rhona’s ex-husband Gus Malcolm, through forgery, obtains access to the embryos that Rhona believed were destroyed.
After Rhona and Gus parted ways, Gus deceitfully forged Rhona’s signature to gain control of the embryos. Gus proceeded to use the embryos to conceive a child with his partner Lucy.
In a recent episode Rhona confronted Gus and a heavily pregnant Lucy. This argument is viewed as being a potential contributory factor into Lucy going into premature labor.
She tragically dies due to excessive bleeding after giving birth to a daughter Ivy. Gus, devastated by Lucy’s demise, unjustly blames Rhona for the tragic outcome.
Struggling with his own profound grief, Gus faces the challenges of raising little Ivy on his own. Meanwhile Rhona’s fear of losing Ivy encourages her to kidnap the child.
So how far-fetched are storylines like this?
If you and your partner break up during the IVF journey, any continued work requires a consent form from both patients. So, If you have created embryos with a partner and the relationship has broken down it is likely that you will not able to subsequently use them as one or both partners may withdraw their consent for the use or continued storage of these embryos.
When the patient contacts the clinic, the paperwork for the stored embryos is clearly marked as dispute and not to be used.
The patient withdrawing consent is informed that the clinic will contact the other party to advise them of this withdrawal and disposal of consent and the patient concerned is required to fill in a WCS HFEA form.
If both parties consent to the withdrawal, embryos can be removed from storage.
If there is a dispute, the patients are given 12 months “cooling off period” before embryos can be removed from storage. One month before the end of the cooling off period, the unit will contact both parties to find out if a mutual decision has been reached regarding the fate of the embryos.
No embryos will be kept in storage beyond the statutory storage period.
Don’t be Scared of Complaining to your Fertility Regulatory body
It’s important to remember that some unscrupulous IVF clinics can make it quite difficult to move your embryo’s from their clinic to another. There is normally a dispute process which should be highlighted on their website, and if you follow this your clinic should comply with your wishes, but some couples may still need to seek the support of their fertility regulatory body.
In the UK HFEA and in the USA ASRM might add a note of concern and support you if a clinic doesn’t want you to take your business elsewhere. But it’s often a good idea to ask a clinic at the beginning of your journey what might happened if there are problems.
Ultimately the threat of bad publicity is often enough of an incentive to encourage a clinic to comply with your wishes.
