Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust v A
Where a clinic mistakenly used the wrong man's sperm in fertility treatment, the man whose sperm was used was the legal father, and not the husband of the mother.
Facts
Mr and Mrs A, a white couple, and Mr and Mrs B, a black couple, received fertility treatment at the same clinic. Through a mistake at the clinic, Mrs A's eggs were fertilised with Mr B's sperm instead of her husband's, and she gave birth to mixed race twins. Mr and Mrs A wished to bring up the twins, and the question was who was the twins' legal father.
Legal principle
Dame Elizabeth Butler-Sloss P held that Mr B was the legal father. Under section 28 of the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act 1990, the husband of a woman who receives fertility treatment is treated as the father of the child, unless he did not consent to the treatment. Mr A had consented to treatment with his own sperm, not with the sperm of another man, so he had not consented to the treatment that took place, and the section did not apply. Mr B was therefore the father. The twins would remain with Mr and Mrs A, who could apply for an adoption order or other order to secure their position.
Related cases on parentage, parental responsibility and medical decisions
- Re A (Children) (Conjoined Twins: Surgical Separation) [2001] Fam 147
- Re B (A Minor) (Wardship: Medical Treatment) [1981] 1 WLR 1421
- Bell v Tavistock and Portman NHS Foundation Trust [2021] EWCA Civ 1363
- Evans v United Kingdom (2008) 46 EHRR 34
- Gillick v West Norfolk and Wisbech Area Health Authority [1986] AC 112
- Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children NHS Foundation Trust v Yates [2017] EWHC 972 (Fam)
- Re H (Minors) (Local Authority: Parental Rights) (No 3) [1991] Fam 151
- Mabon v Mabon [2005] EWCA Civ 634, [2005] Fam 366
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