Genomics, Genetics & Family Law

Leading Cases

Louisa Ghevaert has dealt with numerous leading and landmark family and fertility law cases with a genetic aspect, including:

G v Human Fertilisation & Embryology Authority & Anor [2024]EWHC 2453 (Fam), raises important legal and factual questions about posthumous conception which had not previously been considered by the English Court. Louisa Ghevaert was instructed by the applicant mother (“G”). This case concerned the storage and use of a young woman’s eggs, who tragically died in June 2023 within six months of receiving a breast cancer diagnosis. The case was brought by her mother who sought permission to use her deceased daughter’s 20 frozen eggs to have a genetically related baby through surrogacy. The President of the Family Division, Sir Andrew McFarlane, ruled that she could not do so because there was a lack of explicit written consent from her daughter. However, this legal ruling is important because the President concluded for the first time that the law does allow a relative, such as a mother, to use a deceased’s frozen gametes (eggs or sperm) after their death to have a baby with a surrogate provided the deceased person has given written consent on a prescribed form.

X v Y [2022] EWFC 77, representing the applicant in a complex application for a declaration of parentage in the English High Court following an Ancestry DNA test and a 35-year quest to find her biological father. In doing so, the court navigated complex legal issues and drew inferences from the respondent’s refusal to undergo formal legal chain-of-custody DNA testing.

Whittington Hospital NHS Trust v XX [2020] UKSC 14, a landmark ruling where the UK Supreme Court by a majority of 3:2 dismissed the defendant hospital’s appeal. This enabled the recovery of damages for commercial surrogacy, donor conception and fertility treatment in the US for a woman rendered infertile and unable to carry a pregnancy following a delay in detecting cancer in smear tests and biopsies. Louisa Ghevaert gave expert evidence in the case, which featured in The Guardian (1 April 2020) and in BioNews (6 April 2020).

XX v Whittington Hospital NHS Trust [2018] EWCA Civ 2832, where for the first time the Court of Appeal awarded damages for the costs of fertility treatment, donor eggs and commercial surrogacy in California for a woman rendered infertile and unable to carry a pregnancy following a delay in detecting cancer in smear tests and biopsies. Louisa Ghevaert gave expert evidence in the case, which featured in The Telegraph 19 December 2018 and The Times, The Telegraph, The Mail Online and The Mirror on 27 January 2019.

Y v A Healthcare NHS Trust & The HFEA & Z (by his litigation friend, The Official Solicitor) [2018] EWCOP 18, a first-of-its kind judgment in which Louisa Ghevaert was part of the wife’s legal team and secured a unique legal ruling from the Court of Protection to extract and store sperm from a fatally injured man for use in posthumous fertility treatment and featured in The Independent (13 July 2018) and The Times (14 July 2018).

AB v CD, EF, GH & IL [2018] EWHC 1590 (Fam), representing an intended mother in international contested assisted reproduction and modern family law proceedings in the High Court concerning 2 surrogate born children (Indian surrogacy). This case marks a legal first in the treatment of blended families in the UK following assisted reproduction, divorce, re-marriage, serious allegations of domestic violence and abuse as well as the legal status and identity of two surrogate born children, their biological, intended and social parents and arrangements for the children’s care and upbringing.

XX v Whittington Hospital NHS Trust [2017] EWHC 2318 (QB), being the first legal case in the UK in which the High Court awarded damages to a woman for altruistic UK surrogacy and fertility treatment following a delay in detecting cancer in smear tests and biopsies. This case marks the cross-section of fertility, family and medical negligence law. It highlights the importance of fertility, surrogacy and family law aspects when medical negligence renders a woman infertile and unable to carry a pregnancy. Louisa Ghevaert gave expert evidence in this case.

In the matter of the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act 2008 (Case V) [2016] EWHC 2356 (Fam), obtaining a declaration of parentage in the High Court for a woman in a same-sex relationship for a child conceived through fertility treatment and sperm donation at a UK fertility clinic licensed by the HFEA.  The HFEA Consent Form WP was missing from the clinic file. The case for the first time gave guidance on the practice of making interim costs orders in favour of patients to fund litigation and access to justice following errors in the completion of consent forms at UK fertility clinics.

In JP v LP & Ors [2014] EWHC 595 (Fam), acting for the intended biological father in a high profile complex UK straight surrogacy dispute with his wife (neither a genetic nor a birth mother) following marriage breakdown and divorce and the the surrogate (a close friend). This case established for the first time a legal framework for cases where the legal criteria for a parental order cannot be met, including wardship, and featured in The Telegraph, BBC News and Mail Online (6 March 2014).

Melanie and Robert Gladwin, helping them to save their frozen embryos from destruction and winning a high profile last minute change to the law in relation to embryo storage in September 2009.  Louisa Ghevaert was subsequently featured as The Times Lawyer of the Week (1 October 2009) and Law Society Gazette Lawyer in the News (17 September 2009).