Reuters Posted online: Wednesday, July 17, 2002 at 1900 hours IST Updated: Wednesday, July 17, 2002 at 1931 hours IST
London, July 17: A mix-up at a British IVF (in vitro fertilisation) clinic that left a white couple with black twins was taken to the High Court on Wednesday in a historic legal case that could have widespread ramifications for the fertility industry.
Little is known about the particulars of the case, the first of its kind in Britain, but it is believed to involve a black couple who were trying for a test-tube baby at the same time.
Lawyers spent Wednesday morning making submissions to Britain's most senior female judge, Dame Elizabeth Butler Sloss, behind closed doors.
Although it is not clear whether another couple has laid claim to the children, legal experts say the judge will be expected to make a modern-day judgment of Solomon on who should be considered the babies' legal parents.
She is also expected to determine who should be blamed for the mistake, paving the way for any compensation claims.
The case, referred to on official documents as "Re X Trust", is shrouded in strict court reporting orders. Health officials involved have had a gagging order imposed on them by the High Court and the injunction also forbids the naming of the parents involved or the clinic.
The case raises a myriad of unprecedented issues in respect of legal parentage and medical negligence. Under the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act, a woman who bears a child through IVF treatment is considered its legal mother, even if the egg is not hers.
Experts say a mistake could have occurred in one of three ways in the IVF process, which involves fertilising an egg with sperm before implanting the resulting embryo -- often two or three at a time -- in the woman's womb.
The wrong sperm could have been used to fertilise the right egg, the right sperm could have been used to fertilise the wrong egg, or the embryo implanted in the woman may have been another couple's altogether.
Apart from any possible legal action over custody and decisions over true parentage, the couples involved could launch big compensation claims against health officials.
British courts have previously heard claims by couples who have had children after sterilisation operations have failed. But no claim of this nature has ever been before the courts.
Worldwide, there have been only two recorded cases of mistakes in which a mother gave birth to babies of an unexpected race after fertility treatment.
In 1999, a black baby was born to a white couple because of an embryo mix-up at a New York clinic. In that case the couple was ordered to return the boy to the biological parents.
But in 1997 in Holland, a woman who gave birth to twins with different fathers -- one was her husband's and one was not - was allowed to keep them.
