The District Court in Rishon Lezion on Wednesday ruled that the fetus of a woman who was implanted with the wrong embryo be tested to determine the truth of another couple's claim that the fetus is biologically theirs, Israel Hayom reported.
The testing will use the results of the amniocentesis test which the pregnant woman already underwent earlier in the pregnancy - despite her insistence that the testing not be performed until the child is born.
The woman is already in an advanced stage of pregnancy, and is due to give birth soon.
According to Dr. Yosef Hason, who heads the IVF unit at Assuta Hospital, it is likely that the mixup occurred during the process in which the embryos were being frozen. He explained that both the woman who believes the fetus is hers and the pregnant woman froze the same number of embryos on the same day, and the same number of days after retrieval. Both women's embryos were frozen by the same staffer, and they were stored next to each other in the freezer.
As such, the court determined that the requirements to force the test had been fulfilled, despite the opposition of the pregnant woman and her husband to the testing.
The attorneys representing the couple who believe the child is theirs said, "The District Court....accepted all of our claims regarding the utmost importance of immediately performing the genetic testing to prove family ties."
"The court based its decision on three central reasons....the interest of our clients to ascertain that the fetus is genetically connected to them and of their creation; the public's interest with regards to other couples whose right to parenthood was 'frozen,' essentially, until the genetic testing is completed; and above all, the right of the fetus to know who her father and mother are, and where she comes from, and her right to receive the best medical care which takes her genetic heritage into account."
The pregnant woman suffered a difficult and traumatic pregnancy which included the discovery of a rare heart defect in the fetus, amniocentesis in order to determine if the fetus suffers additional issues, and a complex operation performed by an expert from abroad in order to correct the fetus' heart defect. This operation was performed under general anesthesia in Sheba Medical Center, and saved the fetus' life.
Attorneys for Assuta said, "Assuta praises the fact that the request to perform genetic testing was accepted. Assuta will work, obviously, to implement the ruling as soon as possible."