Widower’s bids to use late wife’s egg to have IVF baby

A 38-YEAR-OLD widower wants a High Court judge to allow him to use an embryo created using his sperm and the eggs of his late wife after IVF treatment.

Investment manager Ted Jennings, of Highbury, north London, has asked Mrs Justice Theis to rule that it would be lawful for him to use the embryo, which was created in 2018 and has been stored, “in treatment with a surrogate mother”.

Lawyers representing the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority said Mr Jennings’ application should be dismissed.

They argued that it would not be lawful to use the embryo because Mr Jennings’ wife, accountant Fern-Marie Choya, who died in 2019 aged 40 after becoming pregnant, had not provided written consent.

The judge considered Mr Jennings’ application at a public hearing in the Family Division of the High Court in London yesterday and is expected to deliver a written ruling in the near future.

Jenni Richards QC, who led Mr Jennings’ legal team, told the judge that Mr Jennings and Ms Choya, who both moved to Britain from Trinidad, had married in 2009.

She said they had struggled to conceive naturally and underwent three cycles of IVF treatment in 2013 and 2014 without success.

Ms Choya had conceived naturally in 2015 and 2016 but both pregnancies ended in miscarriage.

The couple had undergone further IVF cycles in 2017 and 2018 and re-mortgaged their home to afford private treatment.

Ms Richards said a positive pregnancy had been confirmed in late 2018. She said Ms Choya had developed complications with her pregnancy at 18 weeks, which resulted in a uterine rupture, and died in February 2019.

Ms Richards said one embryo, the subject of the application, remained in storage.

Mrs Justice Theis said she aimed to deliver a written ruling soon.