A widow has said it would be ‘inhumane’ for her to be denied the opportunity to have her late husband’s baby after he died while they were undergoing fertility treatment.
Samantha Jefferies, 42, from East Sussex, was in the process of having three cycles of IVF on the NHS when her husband Clive, 51, suffered a brain haemorrhage in 2014.
At the time, the couple had endured two failed cycles of IVF and were awaiting a third attempt using their remaining frozen embryos.
Samantha Jefferies appeared on This Morning to talk of her battle to be allowed to have her late husband’s baby using embryos created before he died
Samantha was in the process of having three cycles of IVF on the NHS when her husband Clive, 51, died from a brain haemorrhage in 2014
Appearing on today’s This Morning, Samantha said she would now like to use these embryos to try to conceive, but she has been told that the clinic where they are being kept – Sussex Downs Fertility Centre – has to destroy them because they have been stored for the pre-agreed two years.
Under the laws on fertility treatment, Samantha can now only appeal to a High Court judge to overrule the decision.
Samantha, an occupational therapist, told presenters Holly Willoughby and Phillip Schofield the news is another ‘tough’ blow following her two failed cycles of IVF and the loss of her husband.
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She said: ‘When we met we knew straight away we would get married and have children. We were devastated when the first two cycles of IVF didn’t work but at least we had hope of another attempt.
‘It is tough to know our embryos might be destroyed. When we did all the paperwork in 2013, we ticked the box for the embryos to be kept for two years instead of ten years as we were advised to choose two years due to NHS funding.’
Samantha is now having to take her case to the High Court this week to see if a ruling can be made for her embryos to be kept ahead of another IVF attempt.
Her solicitor James Lawford-Davies who is fighting her case told The Argue: ‘Currently there isn’t anyone arguing that Samantha shouldn’t be allowed to use her embryos.
‘But because the law says that they cant be stored any longer only a judge can make that decision. I think she has a very strong case.’
The widow said it would be ‘inhumane’ for a judge to rule her embryos should be destroyed because they have been stored for the pre-agreed two years
A spokesperson for Sussex Downs Fertility Clinic said they also hope Samantha can get the law on her side.
They said: ‘We fully support this application and the patient’s (Mrs Jefferies’) wish to establish her lawful right to extend the storage of the embryos she and her late husband created together during treatment at our clinic, in order to have a child/children together.
‘Our interests are entirely to support our patients and achieve the best outcome for her and her late husband, in line with their wishes.’
She also has the backing of the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA) which advises all UK clinics to allow storage of embryos for ten years, even if funding runs out sooner, as not to do so can cause ‘significant distress’ to couples.
Samantha agreed that she had been placed under more than just ‘significant’ stress given the legal battle she is now having to fight, on top of her grief over the loss of her husband and their previous inability to have a much wanted baby.
She said she hopes the High Court will rule in her favour so she has one last chance of having a child with the man she loved.
She said: ‘It would be inhumane for anyone to pass judgement that those embryos can’t remain in storage.
Greiving Samantha said she hopes she will be given the chance to have her husband’s child
‘Continuing this challenge is a very long-winded way of me having children. It is about people being happy and their rights to have children.’
Clive Jefferies served in the Royal Army Medical Corps during the Falklands War and worked as a nurse after leaving the army.
He and Samantha married in 2007 and they began their fertility treatment on the NHS in 2013 after failing to conceive naturally.
Samantha was stunned and devastated when her her husband collapsed and died in front of her in 2014, and her shock and grief delayed her plans to carry on with the fertility treatment they had been having.
She said: ‘I was in shock for a year. When a year passed, I thought it has been three months as it didn’t feel like a month had passed.
‘That for me was so interesting, how memory affects emotions.’
She said it was an extra blow to the heart to then discover she may have missed her chance to have a baby using the frozen embryos as the two-year storage time was due to expire and they must be destroyed.
She said that ‘common sense’ should prevail and allow her to have her husband’s baby.
She said while Clive did give consent for her to carry his child in the event of his death, there should have been a check box on the consent forms they signed in 2013 to make this explicitly clear.
‘Why can’t it be common sense at the time?’ she asked. ‘They should ask for a consent on the form if someone passes away.’
Samantha said it is ‘difficult to know’ if the court case will go her way and even if it does, she then only has a small chance of success that she will conceive using the embryos.
But she hopes she will be given the opportunity to at least try, as it would have been what her husband wanted.
‘He wanted me to have children, he wanted me to have his baby,’ she said.