Embryos accidentally thawed: 8 more families are suing

Publié le 8 Feb, 2019

In Ohio, eight new families are suing the Cleveland fertility clinic, which had allowed 4,000 frozen embryos to perish due to a lack of monitoring in March 2018 (see Ohio: Over 2,000 eggs and embryos potentially damaged The latest lawsuits were filed on Thursday for “negligence and breach of contract“. These are in addition to the lawsuits already pending. A total of 950 families lost embryos. “It was a loss that was felt by the whole family, not just Matt and me,” said Emily Petite, one of the mothers involved.

 

This new case, unlike the earlier ones, also tackles CAS Dataloggers, which was “supposed to monitor the alarm systems connected to the university hospital freezers”. According to the complaint filed, “a remote alarm system supplied by CAS and designed to alert UH (University Hospital) personnel of temperature fluctuations when the centre was not staffed, was deactivated and had been down for some time”.

 

Lawyers hope to obtain more consideration for the devastated families whose embryos have been lost, calling for the embryos “to be recognised as persons, not medical records,””out of respect for the families involved”.

 

For further reading:

Frozen, human embryos lost: hospital prosecuted for “wrongful death”

United States – funeral service for embryos destroyed as a result of freezer malfunction

Embryos accidentally thawed in Ohio – are these classed as persons?

United States: defective freezers in a second fertility clinic – clients want to bring charges

CNN, Jessica Ravitz (24/01/2019) – New lawsuits filed against Cleveland fertility clinic where 4,000 embryos were lost

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