Who has custody over frozen embryos?
The roughly one million frozen embryos idly sitting in storage in fertility clinics across the United States has long been a point of controversy. People often dispute whether these frozen embryos ought to be destroyed, kept or used for stem cell research. However, this past summer highlighted yet another point of contention regarding frozen embryos: the conflict of custody after a couple’s divorce. Since the beginning of this summer, the media has been waiting for the court’s decision on Dr. Mimi Lee and Stephen Findley’s embryo custody case. The couple divorced in 2013, and if Lee—who suffers from breast cancer—gains custody over her embryos, she would use them to procreate. However, Findley wishes to have them thawed and discarded. Because Dr. Lee has more to lose in this case than her ex-husband does, she should be able to use her right to procreate with these embryos, and they should not be destroyed.