Following the revelation that the couple claiming to be the genetic parents of a fetus in an IVF mixup are in fact not related to the fetus, an attorney for the pregnant couple are demanding that the woman be named the child's mother, Maariv reported.
In a Monday evening interview with 103 FM Radio, attorney Assaf Sharaf explained, "We will demand that the court declare that she is the fetus' mother."
"Assuta submitted a request to the court, asking to use the genetic testing of my client with another couple who they claimed to the court have a high chance of being the fetus' biological parents, and today it was discovered that they are not."
"It really does remind me of King Solomon's ruling [about the babies]," he admitted, adding that it is "one of the most difficult cases I have ever had to manage, and also one of the most emotional. On the one hand, today there was great happiness in telling my client the results of the test. She cried, she hugged her husband, there was great excitement, but on the other hand I know that another couple who expected that this was their child, that couple there - Assuta did no less than trick them, take them to court, and lead the court astray."
"It's important that you understand the scope of this failure, because we need to talk about this phenomenon. They say that there are 100 families who it could be that this is their fetus. So what do we do? We stand my client in the city's central square? We intend to turn to the court and request that the tests be stopped, that the court declare that my client is the fetus' mother."
Regarding the statements that although she is carrying the fetus, his client is not the fetus' biological mother, Sharaf emphasized, "Not everything is biology. Morality is a relative concept. We have here a mother who in the middle of the pregnancy was recommended to abort it, because there is a heart defect, that the child will not survive even one day."
"They thought and weighed it and a doctor from the US came and because of the resourcefulness of the doctors from Sheba, over 10 doctors participated in the operation, they did a catheterization with complete anesthesia and the catheterization was successfully completed. The one who gave this fetus life is my client. We will ask the court to stop the witch hunt and allow her to give birth to the baby and raise her."
When asked about legal precedent for cases such as this, such as in cases of surrogacy, he said, "She is not a surrogate mother. It's important to me not to use that term. Because of the mistake at Assuta, if they had not done the catheterization, no one would have known. This was really something that was found by accident. On that matter I must say: In the past week, dozens of women have turned to me after undergoing IVF treatments, asking if their child is theirs biologically. This is an enormous Pandora's box. My heart is with those parents who thought that they had complete certainty that their child and their fetus was theirs."
Meanwhile, the couple who were revealed not to be the fetus' genetic parents said, "We thank the court for making every effort to clarify the question of the genetic identity as quickly as possible... Assuta and the Health Ministry pointed to us as the couple who were almost certainly the genetic parents. Now, when the result has been received, we are digesting the new information, we feel relief and we wish to return to our normal routines. We wish health to the fetus and the pregnant woman, and we wish for the other patients that their doubts should be removed."