Martin, Robert, 13 children/siblings-to-be and Michelle's Situation (summarised)
2000
Michelle was carrying our baby (Robert). She was told that if she gave birth she would kill him and gave uninformed consent to a caesarean surgical extraction. She had wished to give birth to our child.
She then bled a little and according to an Independent Medical Legal Doctor she did not require to be taken back into theatre however she was told she HAD to go back in. She brought up the topic of hysterectomy and said that it was not to be done under ANY circumstances. Martin and Michelle were assured it would not be done.
Unfortunately for the family an illegal post pregnancy hysterectomy with removal of the cervix was done to Michelle. The family were graciously permitted for them to keep her ovaries.
Media refused to cover post pregnancy hysterectomy consequently our family were not in a position to protect ourselves as we did not know it could/would be done to our family..
2001
Michelle, Martin (and Robert) undertook a cycle of IVF treatment – PAID FOR BY THEMSELVES, NOT NHS. A batch of 6 embryos were created and frozen at MFS.
Media refuses to cover post pregnancy hysterectomy.
2002
Michelle, Martin (and Robert) undertook a cycle of IVF treatment – PAID FOR BY THEMSELVES, NOT NHS. A batch of 7 embryos were created and frozen at MFS.
Media refuses to cover post pregnancy hysterectomy.
2002/3/4/5
Storage fees paid for by Michelle, Martin (and Robert), NOT FREE ON NHS.
Media refuses to cover post pregnancy hysterectomy.
2005
We received a letter from the clinic MFS to say that our embryos were reaching 5 years. We were under the impression that it was an administrative detail to continue storage for another 10 years and as Michelle has irreversible infertility we could keep them until she was 55. Our understandings were gathered from information given to us by leaflets from MFS.
Passport Saga begins ...
Media refuses to cover post pregnancy hysterectomy.
2006
We discovered in January that this was not the situation and were finally given new documentation that showed that there was discrimination to embryos that needed a host surrogate and they must be destroyed after 5 years.
Our family asked what could be done to keep the embryos. The clinic said there was no way around the problem.
The HFEA were contacted and they suggested taking the embryos out of the country.
For many months our family had difficulties obtaining information about undertaking this task.
Media refuses to cover post pregnancy hysterectomy.
1st May
Our situation is revealed in the Daily Mail...
Summary here
5th May
Meeting at MFS where a form was completed and a telephone call was made. We understood there was to be a meeting at the HFEA within 4 weeks (2 nd June 2006) and we would find out IF we were allowed to take them out of the country. At the moment the embryos will stay in cryopreserve (a container of liquid nitrogen) until the results of the licensing committee are though.
Robert has asked to see a picture of the 'eggies' however as suspected no photographs are taken of them. So we will look them up on the internet for him. Since our media coverage he now calls them embryos and no longer eggies.
We still NEED a place in another country for our embryos. If we cannot find a destination for our embryos they will have to be perished.
Once our application is put before the licensing committee there is no guarantee that they will allow us to send our little embies to another country however the indicaitons are we should be allowed. There is a chance that we may still be carrying out the funeral of our loved and wanted children/siblings-to-be, either due to the licensing committee, or by not being able to find a new home for our embryos.
Passport saga continues ...
Rest of May
We contacted the clinic to find out an update and to find out the date of the meeting at the HFEA and were told by the secretary, ‘you will be told what you need to know, when you need to know it.’
Passport saga continues ...
Media refuses to cover post pregnancy hysterectomy separately.
2nd June (4 weeks later)
No knowledge passed of any meeting at HFEA.
No permission/refusal given to take the embryos from the country.
No contact from HFEA.
We rang the HFEA however ‘we do not speak to individuals, we only deal with clinics.’
No knowledge if any places for the embryos have been found by the clinc MFS or HFEA.
Our family continue our search.
Passport saga continues ...
Media continues to refuse to cover post pregnancy hysterectomy separately.
30th June (further 4 weeks later)
Very little information given to our family by the clinic MFS or HFEA.
No knowledge if any places for the embryos have been found by the clinic MFS or HFEA.
Our family continue our search.
Passport saga continues ...
Media continues to refuse to cover post pregnancy hysterectomy separately.
July
Passport saga continues ... for Michelle
Robert's passport arrives.
Martins passport arrives.
26th July 2006
Nearly Three months later
Our family has been left in limbo for nearly 3 months, the HFEA and MFS have dismissed our family and our enquires with comments such as ‘we do not deal with individuals only clinics’ and ‘we will tell you what you need to know, when you need to know it’, respectively.
As a result of forcing us out of the equation we have not been given adequate, meeting dates, updates or results of correspondence relating to OUR children-to-be and the future of OUR family.
For nearly 3 months we have been treated with such disdain it is comical.
After nearly 3 months of waiting to for the date which the HFEA will meet to decide IF we are allowed to take OUR embryos out of the country we discover there is a licence to do so, however it will expire NEXT WEEK!
We are now seeking an accurate and FULL chronology of events and other information to be able to move forward.
Media continues to refuse to cover post pregnancy hysterectomy separately.
To date no suitable surrogate has come forward to give the other 7 embryos a chance of comming into the world.
31st July 2006
(over the weekend a local newspaper has covered our situaiton)
To date no response from the HFEA to provide information that would allow us to work though our feasibility study.
To date no FULL chronology of events and other information has been provided by MFS.
(Waiting to hear if BBC local is going ahead with its update)
(Granada reports unable to assist us)
Media continues to refuse to cover post pregnancy hysterectomy separately.
August
The first week of August after a slow start resulted in some coverage. The stroy to us was how we have been treated by the clinic. The story taken up was that we have a liceice.
Through the media we discovered ...
- the export liceice is now open ended
- the clinic is talking with a Finish clinc
We have requested from the clinic (23 and 27 July) chronology of events and paperwork that we need for the American clincs.
To date this has not arrived (7th August)
We have requested of the HFEA the process for taking embryos out of the country and returning them to this country. (23 July)
A letter from the HFEA saying that all the process has to be undertaken via the clinic. They have passed us details of the meeting dates and the outcomes and a few other details - thank you.
Media continues to refuse to cover post pregnancy hysterectomy separately.
September
Letter from MFS with information of their enquires.
Media continues to refuse to cover post pregnancy hysterectomy separately.
October
No further update to report
Media continues to refuse to cover post pregnancy hysterectomy separately.
November
No further update to report
Media continues to refuse to cover post pregnancy hysterectomy separately.
December
No further update to report
Media continues to refuse to cover post pregnancy hysterectomy separately.
2007
January
No further update to report
Media continues to refuse to cover post pregnancy hysterectomy separately.
Where is Surrogacy Legal?
America - Yes ish
YES (we understand) - Alaska,
Arkansas, Arizona, California, Florida, Idaho, Massachusettes, Montana, Oregon, Ohio, Texas, Washington,
Conflicting informaiton so possibily - Michigan, New York.
NO (we understand) -
Belguim - Yes, not really any more, there has been a very negative surrogacy incident.
Cyprus - Yes
Finland - Yes
Germany - No
Italy - No
Russia - Yes however not able to store our embryos, legal issues too complicated.
Spain - No
Sweeden - No
(Home page www.a-little-wish.co.uk )