Man fights to use last embryo for surrogacy after death of his wife

A man whose wife died while pregnant with twins after fertility treatment is fighting for the right to use their last remaining embryo to try to have a baby with a surrogate, in a groundbreaking legal case.

- Hannah Devlin

Ted Jennings, 38, from London, says he is certain that is what his wife, Fern-Marie Choya, would have wanted. But the fertility regulator says this would be unlawful because Choya did not consent to posthumous surrogacy before her sudden death in 2019, while pregnant with twin girls.

The case, the first involving posthumous surrogacy, raises new ethical questions about the right to pursue parenthood if one partner dies after fertility treatment.

Jennings says the clinic did not give the couple sufficient opportunity to consent to this unforeseen scenario, although he had been asked for permission for his wife to pursue posthumous conception in the event of his own death.

“It's not something you would think of when trying to create a life," Jennings said before the hearing in the family division of the high court in London yesterday. "You're thinking of the future, not hoping for the worst possible outcome, and therefore it is up to someone else to present you with the worst-case scenario and ask you if you are prepared for it."