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PI Brief Update

What Price Parenthood? - Chris Thorne, Clarke Willmott LLP

31/08/16. Chris Thorne, Partner at Clarke Willmott with a special interest in infertility and IVF issues, explores the shortcomings in the law relating to the inability to have a family as a result of the negligence of others.

As solicitor for the Claimants in the Bristol, Sheffield and Edinburgh sperm destruction cases Chris has a unique insight into the challenges faced by clients and the shortcomings of the legal system when the choice to have a family is taken from people desperate to become parents, primarily as a result of the failings of the medical profession.

Recently the decisions of Sir James Munby, President of The Family Division of the High Court have brought the issue into greater focus. In nine cases to date, including Re the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act 2008 (Case G) [2016] EWHC 729 (Fam), he has been obliged to decided on issues of parenthood when IVF clinics have failed to complete standard consent forms correctly. His exasperation at the feeble response of the clinics and the need for proper recognition of the damage done to the parents in these circumstances is clear. If parents who have a child which may be biologically but not legally theirs are deserving of compensation, how much more so are those parents who have been denied the prospect of having children at all?...

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All information on this site was believed to be correct by the relevant authors at the time of writing. All content is for information purposes only and is not intended as legal advice. No liability is accepted by either the publisher or the author(s) for any errors or omissions (whether negligent or not) that it may contain. 

The opinions expressed in the articles are the authors' own, not those of Law Brief Publishing Ltd, and are not necessarily commensurate with general legal or medico-legal expert consensus of opinion and/or literature. Any medical content is not exhaustive but at a level for the non-medical reader to understand. 

Professional advice should always be obtained before applying any information to particular circumstances.

Excerpts from judgments and statutes are Crown copyright. Any Crown Copyright material is reproduced with the permission of the Controller of OPSI and the Queen’s Printer for Scotland under the Open Government Licence.