Embryo Litigation

Embryo Litigation: Protecting Your Rights Over Frozen Embryos

When your marriage or relationship ends, you may not have contemplated a battle over your frozen embryos. Disputes with your ex about whether to destroy, use, or donate them raise a number of emotional, ethical, and legal considerations, including:

• Does the client consent form you signed when you started in vitro fertilization completely establish the embryo’s disposition?
• Are embryos frozen in another state subject to that state’s laws or California’s?
• Do improperly executed or outdated consent forms affect their validity?

You may also be wondering…

• If the embryos represent your last viable chance for conceiving a child, does that make a difference in their disposition?
• Does the destruction of embryos violate your right to procreate?
• Do you have the right not to procreate?
• What weight do moral or religious concerns play in a final decision?

Faced with these weighty issues and your ex’s conflicting intentions, you’ll want help navigating the relevant law in California. You need the guidance that only a skilled embryo litigation lawyer can provide.

The Law Office of Jordana N. Better: Your Trustworthy Embryo Dispute Lawyers

Cryopreservation, or freezing, of embryos has been a practiced science for more than forty years. Still, the case law regulating the disposition of frozen embryos continues to evolve. California’s legal landscape here remains unsettled, and courts typically treat a frozen embryo as property. This makes embryo cases resemble contract disputes more than parental rights or custody battles.

Jordana Better has years of experience practicing family law in Los Angeles, San Francisco, and San Diego. Her peer-recognized skills in negotiation, settlement, and trial preparation have won clients like you the favorable outcomes they sought. She will bring all of that experience and her commitment to helping families with real-life issues to bear in resolving your embryo litigation.

When it comes to advocating for your intentions, Jordana Better excels at interpreting and leveraging legal precedents. She knows how to apply the array of rulings that establish embryo disposition rights.

What Are The Legal Precedents That Impact Embryo Litigation?

California, unlike many other states, has not fully settled the issue of embryo disposition following separation or divorce. Because no definitive appellate court ruling or statute exists, trial courts primarily rely on contract and property law to settle these disputes.

Specifically, California courts most often look to the dispositional agreements couples sign with the fertility clinic before starting IVF. When an agreement is vague or doesn’t exist, the court faces a harder task. It must weigh each party’s interests and hardships before settling the matter.

Two other precedents also come into play that differentiate embryo litigation in California from typical contract disputes:

• An acknowledgement that frozen embryos are deserving of “special respect,” meaning they are more than mere property by virtue of their potential for life
• One party’s right to reject parental obligation is generally paramount to the other party’s intention to use the embryos

A Reliable Advocate In Embryo Litigation

Making a compelling case in your embryo litigation requires a deep familiarity with the nuances of emerging law. When cherished rights hang in the balance, you don’t want to take any chances. You’ll want a powerful advocate by your side.

Jordana Better can guide you through every step of your embryo litigation, including:

• Reviewing, challenging or arguing for the enforceability of the dispositional agreement
• Compiling evidence and building arguments to enforce your right to use or prevent the use of the embryos, beyond what the case law holds
• Negotiating a settlement or taking your case to court, if necessary