A few years ago, Anastasiia’s husband Oleksandr died of ulcerative colitis. However, the couple had 6 embryos left, which they received in 2022 after going to fertility specialists, as they were planning to have a child. Due to the full-scale invasion, the couple decided to postpone these plans, and later Anastasia’s husband died, and the woman decided to postpone the embryo transfer until she recovered from his death. The boy’s parents are against it and are trying to sue the embryos because they already want grandchildren. They even plan to work with a surrogate mother for the transfer. This story was shared with TSN journalists by Anastasia herself, Komersant ukrainskyi
reports
The media emphasise that such a process has never happened in Ukraine before.
“How can I give birth to children if I am taking sedatives (because of my husband’s death – ed.), sleeping pills. I can’t sleep, what kind of children are we talking about? Then they said that if you can’t, let’s invite a surrogate mother to give birth to these children. I told them that a year after my death, I was not ready to talk about it,” Anastasiia explains.
She stressed that this disagreement put her in conflict with her late husband’s parents and even forced her to move abroad, where she later learned that her in-laws were trying to sue her embryos.
This litigation has been going on for over a year. The interests of Volodymyr and Tetiana Kuzmenko (the parents of the deceased husband – ed.) are represented by lawyer Kyrylo Fedorchuk.
“My clients are an elderly married couple. Their only son is deceased. And they want to procreate, and therefore claim to have cryopreserved embryos. They had agreements with their son’s wife, but these agreements were not implemented, and she refused to be fertilised, and they were forced to go to court. They want to implement their will for their son’s life, they want to use these cryopreserved embryos to give birth to a child,” he explains.
The lawyer adds that his clients are aware that they cannot use the embryos at this stage according to the law in Ukraine. However, they hope that the situation will change in the future and expect a long process.
The lawyer of the other party, Anastasia, states that embryos cannot be inherited by relatives, even by the parents of the deceased son. They contain genetic material not only from the Kuzmenkos’ son, but also Anastasia’s egg.
“I want a child to procreate, I want more children, I want a child from that woman, or a demographic crisis – this is nonsense, this is absurd! There is another point in the law – the services of a surrogate mother who carries a child can be used by couples who are undergoing infertility treatment,” says Anastasia’s lawyer Vladyslav Bobukh.
During the trial, the parents of the deceased boy have already obtained a genetic examination from the court, despite the fact that it could harm the embryos. According to the Forensic Centre of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, such a study involves the complete or partial destruction of the embryo.
According to journalists, the entire medical community is waiting for the court’s decision. It could set a precedent for any couple who have frozen embryos.
Currently, Anastasia and Oleksandr’s embryos are under arrest and the expectant mother cannot use them.
Author: Alyona Kaplina