Judge reveals twins' mix-up clinic

Dr Kirsty Horsey

Progress Educational Trust

09 November 2002

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[BioNews, London] Dame Elizabeth Butler-Sloss, head of the Family Division of the UK's High Court, has made a statement about the case of a white woman who gave birth to mixed-race twins after a mistake at an IVF clinic earlier this year.

Dame Butler-Sloss has been examining the legal issues raised by the case, including paternity and custody. Genetic tests had already established that the white woman who gave birth to the twins is also their genetic mother. But, during IVF treatment using intra-cytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI), which both couples underwent on the same day, her eggs had been fertilised with the wrong sperm.

The clinic at the centre of the row over the twins has been named as the Assisted Conception Unit at Leeds General Infirmary, although the two couples involved are still being given total anonymity. Dame Butler-Sloss also revealed that the black couple involved remain childless, although she stressed that there was no suggestion that the twins should be uprooted from their 'happy and loving environment' with the white couple, known as Mr and Mrs A. A spokesman for the Leeds hospital said 'the Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust deeply regrets the anguish suffered by all those affected by the error' and offered 'unreserved apologies' to both of the couples.

The next stage of proceedings - a decision on the legal parentage of the twins - will take place early next year, after which 'both Mr and Mrs A and Mr and Mrs B will need time to reflect upon whether they seek any assistance about other matters from the Family Division', said Dame Butler-Sloss. She added that the impact of both the 1990 Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act and the Human Rights Act 1998 would be considered in relation to the 'unprecedented' and 'complex' case.

Reproduced with permission from BioNews, an email and online sources of news, information and comment on assisted reproduction and genetics.