Grieving woman, 22, is told she can't use her dead husband's frozen sperm for ...

Grieving woman, 22, is told she can't use her dead husband's frozen sperm for ...
Grieving woman, 22, is told she can't use her dead husband's frozen sperm for ...

A grieving woman has been told she can't use her fiance's frozen sperm for IVF because he didn't give permission before his sudden death.

Ellie Horne, 22, from Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire, fears she will lose the chance to have partner Myles' children after she was blocked from using his semen as the couple hadn't signed a consent form before he died. 

She insists that experts never told the couple about the consent form before his death and she is now preparing for a £60,000 court battle.  

Myles died from pneumonia last September after a lengthy battle with leukaemia. 

Ellie, who has taken Myles' surname despite not being married, said the couple had started IVF treatment but it was pushed back due to the pandemic.

Ellie Horne, 22, from Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire, has been told she can't use her fiance Myles' frozen sperm for IVF because he didn't give permission before his

Ellie Horne, 22, from Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire, has been told she can't use her fiance Myles' frozen sperm for IVF because he didn't give permission before his

Ella insists that experts never told the couple about the consent form before his death and she is now preparing for a £60,000 court battle

Ella insists that experts never told the couple about the consent form before his death and she is now preparing for a £60,000 court battle

Myles died from pneumonia last September after a lengthy battle with leukaemia

Myles died from pneumonia last September after a lengthy battle with leukaemia

She said: 'I am now facing a very long and costly court case to win legality over Myles' stored semen, something that should be rightly mine.

'Not only have I lost the love of my life; the man who I built a life with, planned to marry and carry his children, I am at the brink of losing the chance to ever even have our children.' 

The couple had been together for three years and Myles froze his sperm after doctors warned cancer treatment could render him infertile.

Myles' health declined rapidly last year after a series of infections - but Ellie said his death last September was unexpected.

What does the law say? 

In the UK, IVF is regulated by the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act 1990. 

When someone consents to their eggs, sperm or embryos being stored, they are asked to decide what should happen if they die or become mentally incapable.

As a general rule, posthumous conception is only possible where there is a written signed consent to post-death storage and use.

However, there are some exceptions.  Diane Blood fought a legal battle to conceive using her deceased husband's sperm, which had been collected without his consent after he was unexpectedly incapacitated by meningitis. 

The court ultimately decided that it was an infringement of EU law to deny Mrs Blood her right to seek treatment elsewhere in Europe. Although treatment could not lawfully take place in the UK, the HFEA allowed Mrs Blood to export her husband's sperm to Belgium where she was successfully treated.

Source: NGA Law  

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Now, Ellie claims that experts never told the couple that Myles needed to sign a consent form for her to use his sperm in case he died.

Ellie said: 'As the law stands, he needed to sign a consent form for me to use his sperm after he passed away. Nobody told us this.

'We had no idea. Had we known, he would most definitely have signed.

'We'd talked so much about the baby we wanted to have. If it was a boy we planned to call him Mylo, after Myles. If it's a girl we wanted to call her Nora, after my nan.'

Ellie has ploughed her savings into the court battle and is fundraising £50,000 to help with legal costs.

The GoFundMe page can be found here: https://www.gofundme.com/f/help-Ellie-to-have-her-and-Myles-Children.

Her cases mirrors that of Jade Payne, who is facing a battle to use her dead husband's frozen sperm to have his baby because of a paperwork blunder made 11 years ago.

Jade, 35, must prove to her fertility clinic that her 35-year-old spouse Daniel, who died two years ago, wanted her to have his child through IVF.

She said TFP Oxford Fertility told her that she will have to win a High Court battle before they can unlock Daniel's sperm, which was frozen ahead of his testicular cancer treatment in 2010. 

The couple, who were together for 10 years, were planning to start IVF and have a child before a brain tumour Daniel had been living with returned with more severity and killed him in December 2019.

The dispute is centred around a 'technicality' that Jade's name is not on Daniel's original sperm donation documents - despite more recent ones having her signature on them.

Jade, who is a nanny, told MailOnline: 'I have to prove my husband wanted my child, and there's no guarantee after doing all of this that I'm going to win.

'I may get told I can't use his sperm as I don't have sufficient evidence of his wishes, but on top of that I may have to fund my own IVF as well.

'My dog recently had an accident which cost me an arm and a leg in MRI scans, and I expect legal costs for this will run

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