How a woman ended up giving birth to stranger’s baby in Australia

A woman in Australia was left shocked after discovering she gave birth to a stranger’s baby. This happened as her fertility clinic wrongly implanted another woman’s embryos into her.

Monash IVF, which operates across Australia, has apologised for the IVF, or in vitro fertilisation, mix-up. The rare incident has sparked questions about the baby’s legal parentage in Australia.

Let’s take a closer look.

The IVF bungle

Monash IVF in Brisbane, Queensland, accidentally mixed up embryos, leading to a woman giving birth to another couple’s baby last year.

The fertility company came to know about the mix-up in February after the birth parents requested to shift their remaining frozen embryos to another provider, reported ABC (Australian Broadcasting Corporation).

“Instead of finding the expected number of embryos, an additional embryo remained in storage for the birth parents,” a Monash IVF spokesperson said.

The fertility clinic said their investigation found that “an embryo from a different patient had previously been incorrectly thawed and transferred to the birth parents, which resulted in the birth of a child."

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The company attributed the mistake to “human error”.

As per The Guardian, the birth parents were informed about the mix-up within a week of the incident coming to light.

Monash IVF has not revealed the couple’s identity to maintain their privacy.

“On behalf of Monash IVF, I want to say how truly sorry I am for what has happened,” said CEO Michael Knaap in the statement. “We will continue to support the patients through this extremely distressing time.”

He also asserted he was confident this was an “isolated incident.” “We are reinforcing all our safeguards across our clinics – we also commissioned an independent investigation and are committed to implementing its recommendations in full,” Knaap added.

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Probe over IVF mix-up

The incident was reported to the Reproductive Technology Accreditation Committee and the new Queensland assisted reproductive technology regulator — Queensland Health.

“We will work with Monash IVF to reinforce safeguards in their Queensland clinics and ensure any risks are identified and mitigated,” a Queensland Health spokeswoman said, as per ABC.

This is not the first incident of wrongdoing involving this fertility company.

Last year, Monash IVF reached an A$56 million (Rs 300 crore) settlement with more than 700 former patients for destroying embryos after faulty genetic testing.

A possible legal battle over child

The Brisbane woman giving birth to another couple’s baby after embryo mix-up could have legal implications.

Family creation lawyer Sarah Jefford, who specialises in surrogacy and donor conception law, told ABC that the case could trigger a legal battle over the baby’s custody.

“There are presumptions in Australia about the birth parents being the legal parents of the child,” she said.

“But whether the genetic parents want to come forward and start a discussion about that, then we’ll have to wait and see.”

Speaking to CNN, Jefford said she got calls from clients worried about their own IVF treatment. “We do not have legal precedence for this in Australia. Our laws presume that the birth parents are the legal parents of a child, however this is open to challenge when the genetic parents did not consent to their embryo being used,” she said.

She said any decision will be taken considering the child’s best interests, but the consequences will be “lifelong for everyone involved.”

Fertility educator Lucy Lines told ABC the devastating mistake would “send ripples through the whole IVF community”.

“I actually had a cold sweat. As an ex-embryologist it’s your absolute worst nightmare,” she said. “It is so, so, so rare, and there are so many checks and balances in place that make it almost unbelievable that it could’ve happened.”

Alex Polyakov, a clinical associate professor at the University of Melbourne, said this is the first case of IVF mix-up in Australia.

“Australia’s regulatory framework for assisted reproductive technology is internationally recognised for its stringency and thoroughness,” he told CNN.

“The probability of such an event occurring is so low that it defies statistical quantification.”

According to ABC, Jefford said that though the case was “unique” to Australia, it has been reported in other parts of the world.

A similar case was reported in the United States recently when a White woman found she was implanted with the wrong embryo after giving birth to a Black baby.

With inputs from agencies