A German couple who froze embryos to delay having children face legal proceedings. In fact, following their divorce, the woman forged her ex-husband’s signature on several occasions in order to undergo IVF. She gave birth to a baby boy without her ex-husband’s knowledge.
Although he did not consent to this pregnancy, the father is nevertheless legally obliged to pay child support. The ex-husband has filed a lawsuit at Munich’s medical malpractice court, claiming that the clinic should pay the maintenance instead of him. But the judges did not share the same opinion. They deemed that “staff at the clinic […] had no reason to doubt the authenticity of the signatures and so could not be held liable”. They also emphasised the fact that, during the divorce, the father had not explicitly withdrawn his consent for the embryos to be used.
Daily Mail, Chris Pleasance (03/05/2018)