A Legal Battle Over Frozen Embryos in China

It is not uncommon for people nowadays to seek out assisted reproductive technology, such as in vitro fertilization (IVF), to conceive children. The technology allows freezing the embryos created through IVF for use at a later date, when for example fertility may become an issue. Disputes over who owns the frozen embryos may arise later, typically when these people no longer want to have children together. Four years ago, a court in China heard a dispute over the custody of four frozen embryos where the husband and wife who had created them had both died. The story of a baby born from these embryos by a surrogate mother has recently been covered by media across the world, including the New York Times and the Beijing News (the original story in Chinese). The couple pursued IVF in 2012 after receiving an infertility diagnosis, and four fertilized eggs were produced and frozen in the hospital. In March 2013, right before the embryos were to be implanted, the husband…

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