Woman loses fight with her ex-husband to stop IVF embryos being destroyed

Jacqueline McGinn, 39, went to court after Declan Bonner, 38, said he wanted the NHS fertility clinic to dispose of them.

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The couple, who have a seven-year-old daughter from IVF treatment, disagreed about what to do with the remaining embryos once they had reached a five-year storage limit under the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act.

Miss McGinn had hoped to prevent doctors at the Royal Victoria Hospital in Belfast from destroying the embryos, saying they should be donated to a childless couple going through IVF treatment.

But the High Court in Belfast ruled that under the 1990 Act, Mr Bonner's decision to destroy the embryos should take precedence.

The Act says the man and woman who created the embryos must both agree before they can be used for IVF - even if it involves donating the embryos to another couple.

Therefore, once one partner wants to destroy the embryos, their wish must be carried out.

The hospital last night confirmed the embryos had been destroyed.

Call centre worker Miss McGinn, of Derry, last night wept as she revealed how she was told in a phone call from clinic staff on Thursday afternoon that the embryos were about to be taken out of deep freeze to destroy them.

"I am totally heartbroken - these are my babies and it is as if they have been aborted," she said.

"The clinic called me to say they were coming out of the freezer because they had got the court order through. How can it be right that these unborn lives can just be destroyed in this way?

"I went through IVF, I took the drugs and had the treatment. They are created from my eggs, but I have no say once my ex-husband decides he wants to get rid of them. I feel abandoned by the hospital."

Miss McGinn and Mr Bonner, who were married for 11 years, turned to IVF to conceive their daughter Keira after Miss McGinn had a number of miscarriages.

They had put four remaining embryos in frozen storage for later use, but they split up when Keira was six months old. Mr Bonner is now married to a work colleague.

In 2006, when the embryos reached the five-year storage limit enforced by the HFE Act, the hospital told Miss McGinn the embryos had to be used, donated or destroyed.

She and Mr Bonner both signed consent forms agreeing to donate the remaining embryos to an infertile couple.

However, he changed his mind shortly afterwards, saying he wanted the embryos to be destroyed.

It was then that Miss McGinn launched proceedings to try to stop the hospital disposing of them.

Mr Bonner, a manager at a computer chip manufacturing firm, said last night: "This is a private medical matter and I do not want to discuss it. It was not a decision I made lightly and I gave it very careful consideration indeed."

A spokesman for the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority, which oversees fertility clinics, said that once consent for donation had been withdrawn by one partner, the hospital had to destroy the embryos.

Belfast Health and Social Care Trust, which runs the Royal Victoria Hospital, said: "We cannot comment on specific cases."