Move IVF families are considering to ensure babies are their own after Monash baby bungles
Parents who’ve had children through IVF are considering DNA tests to confirm they are actually their own, after baby-making giant Monash refused to rule out more bungles could occur.
Fertility
Don't miss out on the headlines from Fertility. Followed categories will be added to My News.
Families who’ve had children through IVF are considering DNA tests to confirm they are theirs.
It comes as Monash IVF has refused to rule out any further embryo errors following Tuesday’s shock revelations that a patient was wrongly given her biological embryo – instead of her partner’s as planned – at its Clayton clinic last week.
It is the second time in a matter of weeks that the fertility giant has hit headlines over a baby bungle, with the Herald Sun revealing in April a woman gave birth to a stranger’s baby after a mix-up in Brisbane.
Anastasia Gunn, who is suing Queensland Fertility Group after she and her partner Lexie’s children were conceived with the wrong donor sperm in yet another case, said self-regulation was “an abject failure” and was not sufficient, especially given clinics received Medicare funding.
“These clinics should be answerable for the fact that this is taxpayer dollars that are being channelled into corporations who seem to be more beholden to shareholders than to patients,” she said.
“People are very genuinely worried, and rightly so, and thinking should I DNA test my children.”
Ms Gunn has teamed up with fellow advocate Katherine Dawson, whose biological father was a serial donor with potentially up to 700 children, to call for tighter federal regulation.
The pair have written to Federal and State Health Ministers, due to meet on Friday, saying errors were a “direct consequence of systemic failures in an unregulated, unaccountable industry”.
Health Minister Mark Butler has slammed Monash IVF over the most recent error and says IVF regulation is “on the agenda”.
Victorian Health Minister Mary-Anne Thomas said Victoria’s regulation was rigorous
but would not detail whether she would call for specific federal changes.
After the Brisbane bungle, Monash IVF repeatedly said it was confident it was an “isolated” case but its statement on the Melbourne mix-up contained no such assurances.
When asked this week by the Herald Sun if any further embryo, egg or sperm mix-ups could be ruled out, the company would not say.
The IVF industry is governed by a mix of state and federal laws, but the national accreditation process — whereby clinics are granted a licence to operate — is self-regulated by the industry and managed by a committee of the Fertility Society of Australia and New Zealand.
Assisted Reproductive Treatment Families Australia founder Michelle Galea said she created her organisation because there was little support for patients.
“I would like to see a review done on the whole industry,” she said.
People in several IVF support groups had been discussing DNA testing in the wake of the errors, she said.
Some of Australia’s biggest investment funds have been burned by the latest bungle and nearly 70 million Monash IVF shares were dumped on Tuesday.
As patients looked to move their embryos elsewhere, the share price tumbled by 27 per cent to end the day at 54.5c, before recovering to 62c on Wednesday.
Twelve months ago, they were trading at $1.35, with managing director Michael Knapp boasting a $1.2m salary, with bonuses, for the 2024 financial year.
Monash IVF said on Tuesday it would “implement interim additional verification processes and patient confirmation safeguards over and above normal practice and electronic witness systems, to ensure patients and clinicians have every confidence in its processes”.
Originally published as Move IVF families are considering to ensure babies are their own after Monash baby bungles
Victoria to push for stricter laws as Monash IVF boss exits
Victoria will push for national regulation of the fertility sector as the embattled chief of Monash IVF has been ousted after two embryo mix ups were revealed within weeks.
‘Should never have happened’: Minister savages second Monash IVF bungle
The Melbourne fertility giant — already reeling from a mix up that resulted in a woman giving birth to another person’s baby — has again implanted the wrong embryo into a patient.