by Omowunmi Oladokun
IVF simply means In-victro Fertilization and it is a form of Assisted Reproductive Technology.
It can be defined as the process where an egg is combined (fertilized) with sperm outside the human body in a laboratory dish and allowed to grow into an embryo for a few days before being passed back into the uterus for conception.
IVF came up as a result of couples inability to conceive naturally and the need to use technology to assist in reproduction in this Century/generation.
In-vitro fertilization (IVF) is legally acceptable in Nigeria but there are no federal legislation to govern it and it suffices to say that The Assisted Reproductive Technology (Regulation) Bill (introduced in 2016) has not been passed into law by the Federal Government.
Lagos State Government has introduced the guidelines (not laws) that requires hospitals to register and be thoroughly inspected before engaging in IVF.
There is an absence of local case law or binding precedents in Nigerian courts as regards IVF contract disputes, post-mortem gamete use, or donor-conceived IVF.
The UK case laws of ARB v IVF Hammersmith (2020): The court held that a man has a case against the hospital for damages that was caused during the IVF treatment i.e they used stored embryos without his valid consent.
In another case, Nara Family Court Case (Japan): A 45-year-old man brought a case to court to deny paternity after his wife implanted frozen eggs without his knowledge, resulting in a baby girl in 2015. The hospital stated that he performed the procedure without the husband’s consent.
The court rejected the husband’s claim and recognized him as the legal father of the baby.
In the case of Manukyan v. CHA Health Systems (2019), the dispute focused on a Californian couple whose embryos were mistakenly implanted into a New York woman, resulting in her giving birth to twins who were genetically the California couple’s children.
The court held that there was medical negligence and malpractice by the hospital.
In Cleveland University Hospitals (2018) states the kind of negligence that can happen at the hospital during an IVF session. e.g power outages, or mishandling in storage tanks which led to the destruction of stored eggs, sperm, or facility failure.
The court held that frozen embryos were not living persons under Ohio law and cannot be referred to as wrongful death.
In conclusion, IVF being a form of Assisted Reproductive Technology has served as a welcome relief to all and sundry against non conception of couples and it is sad to state that there are no recognised law regulating IVF in Nigeria.
