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Dead couple's parents granted custody of embryos

2014-09-18 13:18 Shanghai Daily Web Editor: Wang Fan
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Two couples who had fought each other in court for the right to inherit four frozen embryos after their children died in a car crash have been given joint custody.

Wuxi Intermediate People's Court in east China's Jiangsu Province issued a final ruling yesterday after a lower court had rejected a claim by the parents of the son.

Shen Xinnan, 52, filed a lawsuit in January asking a court in Yixing to grant him the rights over the embryos his son Shen Jie and daughter-in-law Liu Xi had left in a hospital in the provincial capital city of Nanjing. The infertile couple had been preparing for the embryos to be transplanted into Liu in the hope of having children, but that dream was shattered in the car crash seven months ago.

In court, both sets of parents argued they had the right to inherit the embryos but they were told they could not as there were no clear rules governing frozen embryos.

The court said the embryos could only be used for Liu to get pregnant, something that was impossible after her death.

However, Shen and his wife, Shao Yumei, took the matter to the intermediate court in July in a lawsuit that also included their daughter-in-law's parents and the hospital.

The young couple had signed a contract with the hospital to keep the embryos for just one year. After that the hospital had the right to destroy them.

Shen argued there were no laws banning the inheritance of frozen embryos and the embryos were the legal property of Shen Jie and Liu Xi so they could be inherited.

The hospital disagreed, citing laws banning the donation and transfer of embryos and surrogacy, and asked the court to reject the lawsuit.

In its ruling, the intermediate court said that since there were no clear regulations, it took into account the ethical and emotional issues involved.

The embryos contained the genetic information of the two families and would serve as consolation for both couples, who had each lost their only child.

Embryos had the potential for life so should be protected, the court said.

Since both couples were the only people caring about the embryos and had the closest connection to them, both should have the right to monitor them and decide on their future.

Neither couple could be reached for comment yesterday.

In previous interviews, they said they knew surrogacy was illegal but wanted to have a hospital keep their "potential grandchildren" until the rules were relaxed.

China's family-planning policy limits the majority of urban families to just one child.

In 2010, health authorities said at least a million couples had lost their only child.

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