A Mix-up During Assisted Reproductive Technique: What is in the Best Interest of the New-Born?

A woman, after undergoing fertility treatment in hospital in Rome, became pregnant but three months later she was informed that she was carrying he twins of another couple. The error had gone unnoticed until the mother had a genetic test revealing that neither she nor her husband were the genetic parents. In December 2013 an embryo exchange took place, because embryos belonging to one couple, who had undergone a treatment of homologous fertilization, were erroneously implanted in another woman's uterus. This other couple had undertaken the same kind of treatment. The genetic parents urgently appealed to stop the new-born registration practices and to give the newborn twins to their genetic parents. On August 8(th), 2014, the Civil Court of Rome issued a judgement, which rejected the appeal, stating that the uterine mother and her husband must be considered the legal parents of the twins. In the present paper, the Authors will explore the grounds of this judgment, moreover, taking into account this serious adverse event, which raises numerous issues from a human, ethical and legal point of view, several considerations will be made.