A court battle between a divorced couple over the future of their frozen embryos began Monday with an attorney for the former husband accusing the woman of using the dispute to get money.
Dr. Mimi Lee, 46, a pianist and part-time anesthesiologist, married Stephen Findley, a wealthy executive, five years ago. Shortly before the wedding, Lee learned she had breast cancer.
Unsure whether the disease would make it impossible for her to have children, the couple went to a fertility center, where Lee's eggs and Findley's sperm created five embryos, now frozen.
Findley filed for divorce two years ago and wants the embryos destroyed. Lee, now infertile, wants to implant the embryos into a surrogate and have a baby. Without the embryos, she will never have a child who shares her genes.
If the embryos are implanted and carry to term, the ex-husband becomes a father without consent. If the embryos are destroyed, the ex-wife is denied the deep need to procreate. The embryos themselves have issues either way. Modern biomedical ethics are complex.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday July 15 2015, @11:15PM
Never is a long time.
(Score: 2) by Immerman on Wednesday July 15 2015, @11:46PM
True, but one person's lifetime isn't.To say nothing of a woman's viable reproduction window. Even going with a surrogate, trying to raise and support a child starting in her sixties (a paltry 14 years from now) would have the youngest graduating high school when she's roughly 80. That's a real challenge there.