{ REPRODUCTIVE WRANGLE } Estranged Mum couple wage a legal battle over 16 frozen embryos

Sixteen frozen embryos are at the centre of a unique custodial battle in Mumbai that raises key legal and ethical questions.

- Mayura Janwalkar

In 2022, a couple from south Mumbai who were married the previous year decided to freeze embryos grown from the man’s sperm and the woman's eggs. But in 2023, their marriage soured. Now, the legal battle over the embryos has reached the Bombay High Court.

The woman wishes to have a child, and wants the fertility clinic currently storing them to transfer them to another clinic Her husband has allegedly blocked the transfer. The 46-year-old woman is now before the Bombay High Court urging it to direct the concerned authorities to allow her to proceed with the transfer of her cryopreserved embryos to another clinic without the consent of her estranged husband. “In matters so intrinsically tied to the woman's body, health and identity, the law must recognise the primacy of her informed and enduring will over procedural hurdles grounded in outdated patriarchal notions of spousal dominion,” her petition says.