Woman seeks to move plea to ART board

A south Mumbai resident battling her estranged husband for custody of their 16 frozen embryos told the Bombay high court on Monday that she wanted to withdraw her petition from the high court and move the National Assisted Reproductive Technology (ART) and Surrogacy Board in New Delhi instead.

- Mayura Janwalkar

‘As earlier reported by this newspaper on July 25, the custodial battle raises unique legal and ethical issues. The couple, in their forties, got married in 2021 and decided to freeze the embryos fused from the woman's eggs and the man’s sperm with a prominent fertility clinic at Kemp's Corner in south Mumbai in 2022. They signed a joint consent form to freeze the 16 embryos. Subsequently, the marriage soured, and the couple became estranged though they remain legally married.