A bid to declare regulations under the National Health Act relating to the control over artificial fertilisation, embryo transfer, storage and destroying of zygotes and embryos unconstitutional has failed in the Gauteng High Court.
These regulations are specifically aimed at medical practitioners specialising in gynaecology with training in reproductive medicine, medical scientists, and medical and clinical technologists trained in reproductive biology and related procedures.
The Surrogacy Advisory Group NPO, which brought the application, maintained it was doing so in the public interest, telling the court it was concerned about in vitro fertilisation for intended parents who are considering surrogacy before the court had confirmed their surrogate motherhood agreement, reports The Star.
The group argued that a time co-ordination problem between two scarce resources – a suitable egg donor and a surrogate mother – could be resolved by creating embryos and cryopreserving them for later use, and that the impugned provision confines the time when the process of IVF can take place, namely, when there is a “specific recipient”.
The actual concern of the timing co-ordination issue and what presently happens in practice was confirmed by the evidence of a medical biological scientist in the fertility field, who said embryo freezing would be a preferred route of treatment to solve the timing issue.
It was not uncommon, she added, for commissioning parents in a surrogate motherhood agreement confirmation application to already have cryopreserved embryos stored at a fertility clinic.
This is before a gestational surrogate has been identified.
In turning down the application, Judge Linda Retief said a court must consider whether a party is genuinely acting in the public interest, and that the case lacked sufficient evidence to justify the outcome.
See more from MedicalBrief archives:
Judge dismisses couple’s application to freeze embryos
UK to increase storage limits for eggs, sperm and embryos to 55 years
French IVF law change may result in shortage of frozen sperm