Fertility patients call in lawyers to stop embryos being destroyed
Lawyers for distraught Monash IVF patients who learnt their embryos may have been incorrectly classified as abnormal and discarded due to a bungled genetic screening test are demanding that no more embryos be destroyed.
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Lawyers acting for fertility patients have demanded Monash IVF do not destroy any more embryos classified as abnormal by a bungled genetic screening test.
The legal request came as distraught Monash IVF patients said their requests to have fees refunded for IVF cycles affected by faulty screening had been rejected.
Others say they are desperate to have frozen embryos currently stored at Monash IVF transferred to another clinic to continue treatment elsewhere, however they fear they are to be denied access to their embryos.
The fears have arisen after dozens of Monash IVF patients, and possibly more, learned their embryos may have been incorrectly classified as abnormal and discarded due to errors with its world-first non-invasive preimplantation genetic screening test introduced in May 2019.
More than 30 Monash IVF patients have now contacted lawyers investigating a potential class action against the fertility giant over a bungled cell-free PGT-A test.
Margalit Injury Lawyers managing principal Michel Margalit wrote to Monash IVF this week notifying she had received instructions from multiple families to commence proceedings.
“We just want to ensure that people have options, because it appears people really just didn’t understand what they were getting into,” Ms Margalit told the Herald Sun.
“They were told this was superior technology and it appears it is not.”
Ms Margalit has also written to Monash IVF to clarify whether patients will have the ability to access or use their embryos that have been labelled abnormal but which have not yet been discarded.
As well as asking they be retained to ensure patients are not denied the chance to use them in future IVF cycles, Ms Margalit also warns they could become evidence in any legal proceedings.
One Melbourne woman told the Herald Sun her distress at being told her embryos may have been incorrectly labelled as abnormal had been multiplied by the uncertainty she may be denied access to them.
“It is tragic. When you reach a certain age every month is crucial so you don’t have much time to play with,” she said.
Monash IVF Group chief executive Michael Knaap said no embryos that had been tested through cell-free PGT-A would be discarded without patient consent, and Monash IVF rejected the suggestion it would do so.
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