Couple Fights for Frozen Embryos in Custody Battle
(When those poor things thaw, they are gonna need some serious therapy…)
Augusta and Randy Roman were once a happy couple, but like so many marriages, theirs ended in divorce. In the middle of the battle wasn’t three children, but three embryos they created together. Right now, the embroyos remain on ice while Augusta and Randy battle it out in court. At stake is whether these embryos will survive.
At age 40, Augusta believed that in vitro fertilization was her last chance to have the baby. Thirteen eggs had been harvested from her ovarian follicles. Combined in the lab with Randy’s sperm, six of the eggs had become viable embryos, which were to be implanted in her uterus the next morning. Ten hours before Augusta Roman’s in vitro fertilization appointment at the Center of Reproductive Medicine in Webster, Texas, her husband announced that he had changed his mind.
The Roman v. Roman embryo-custody is moving its way through the legal system. The arguments that divided the Romans hang in the air in a debate that affects a growing number of women. The question, does Augusta Roman’s desire to bring these embryos to term transcend Randy Roman’s change of heart about becoming a father? Augusta insists they are children, offspring she has a maternal duty to protect.
Augusta is willing to relieve Randy of financial and emotional responsibility for any children that resulted from her pregnancy and to keep his name off their birth certificates. But Randy says he hadn’t intended to be a mere sperm donor.
There are now half a million frozen embryos in the United States. Although President Bush has declared embryos to be “unique and genetically complete, like every other human being,” there is no national policy defining what they are in the eyes of the law. Thus, there is no policy about what to do with any “leftovers.” Are they property or human life? So far, the half-dozen state supreme courts that have handed down opinions about embryos in divorce cases have sided with the individual’s right not to be forced into parenthood.
For now, the embryos remain at the Center of Reproductive Medicine in a locked, alarm-equipped container in a locked, alarm-equipped room. Augusta’s legal team is preparing an application to the state supreme court. If Augusta’s bid to appear before the Texas Supreme Court is granted, it will be the first such case to reach that level in the state.
Via News 8 Austin
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