In Australian embryo mix-up, women gives birth to stranger's baby

A woman in Australia gave birth to a stranger’s baby after her IVF clinic accidentally implanted the wrong embryo.


Australia's IVF provider Monash IVF, attributed “human error” responsible for the accidental mix-up, as reported by the Australian media. The incident came to light in February, after the birth parents asked for their remaining embryos to be transferred to another fertility clinic.


“Instead of finding the expected number of embryos, an additional embryo remained in storage for the birth parents,” the company said in a statement.


The statement put out by the company said, an initial investigation was launched immediately, which confirmed an embryo from another patient had been mistakenly thawed and transferred to the birth mother, and had not uncovered any other such errors.


Its statement didn’t identify the patients involved or divulge details about the child's custody. The birth parents were informed about the mistake within a week of finding it.


“All of us at Monash IVF are devastated and we apologise to everyone involved,” said CEO Michael Knaap. “We will continue to support the patients through this extremely distressing time," he added.


The incident has been reported to the relevant regulators, including the Reproductive Technology Accreditation Committee, and also voluntarily reported the incident to the new Queensland assisted reproductive technology regulator.


This isn’t the first time Monash IVF has faced trouble. Last year, they agreed to pay A$56 million (£26.8 million) to 700 former patients in a major class action. The case showed that around 35% of embryos wrongly labelled as abnormal by the clinic’s faulty genetic test were actually normal.