The widow of a Falklands war combat medic will go to the high court on Wednesday in an effort to prevent the couple’s frozen embryos from being destroyed.
Samantha Jefferies, 42, and her husband Clive were about to start fertility treatment with embryos they had created when he died suddenly in 2014 from a brain haemorrhage. He was 51 years old.
The couple had given written consent for the embryos to be stored for 10 years. But because they only had NHS funding for two years, the Sussex Downs Fertility Centre asked them to amend the consent to two years, which has now run out.
“I have never thought of my life being without children” said Jefferies, an occupational therapist in Winchelsea in East Sussex. “But now I’m facing the prospect of never having my own children and that is quite scary. I think it would be a waste of my life not to be a mum, if that makes sense.”
“They are made with my genetic material. It’s nice to have the comfortable thought that in the future I’ll be able to produce my own child with my genetic material, but it goes further than that. Why should it be that the medical profession makes decisions about my body parts?” she said.
“It leaves a bitter taste. It’s almost like the medical profession has control over reproduction and that doesn’t sit very easy with me,” she added.
Clive Jefferies served as a medic with the Royal Army Medical Corps and was on the Sir Galahad when it was attacked in 1982, with the loss of 48 men aboard. He worked as nurse after leaving the military.
The couple married in 2006 and later obtained NHS funding to cover three cycles of IVF and two years of embryo storage. As with sperm and eggs, embryos can be stored for a maximum of ten years before consent must be renewed. Without existing consent, they cannot legally be stored or used in IVF.
The couple signed consent forms to have the embryos stored in July 2013 and had two cycles of IVF that did not lead to a pregnancy. Their remaining three embryos were due to be destroyed when consent ran out in August last year, but while they are the subject of legal action they cannot be discarded. If Jefferies loses her case, the embryos will be destroyed immediately.
The UK fertility regulator, the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA), has issued guidance to clinics that embryo storage periods must not be linked to payment arrangements. In 2012, a year before the couple signed their consent forms, the HFEA wrote to all UK clinics and urged them to allow storage for 10 years even if funding ran out sooner.
James Lawford Davies, a solicitor with Hempsons in London, who represents Jefferies and Sussex Downs Fertility Centre, said: “We will argue that, if you look at all the evidence in relation to his and her wishes, together with Clive’s explicit consent to the posthumous use of the embryos by Samantha, it is clear he intended to consent for a 10 year period.”
“It seems very wrong that Samantha may be prevented from using embryos that were created using her own genetic material in circumstances where it is clear that Clive would have wanted her to be able to use them,” he added. “If she is unsuccessful the embryos will have to be destroyed immediately.”
“An HFEA spokesperson said: “We have made it clear to all clinics that they must not align the storage period a patient consents to, with their payment arrangements. While we do not comment on legal cases, we hope that it may be possible to reach a positive resolution to this matter in the near future.”
