Woman loses final round of battle to use frozen embryos

After seven years of trying and hoping, Natallie Evans lost her last chance to become a mother yesterday. The 34-year-old former cancer patient, left infertile following treatment, was told by the European Court of Human Rights that she must destroy embryos created with her ex-partner.

Ms Evans, from Melksham, Wiltshire, said she was left "distraught" by the decision, delivered by 17 judges of the Grand Chamber of the European Court, to which she turned after exhausting the UK legal process. She was in tears at a news conference after the decision, saying it was "very hard to accept".

She began IVF treatment with her ex-partner Howard Johnston in 2000, but had to suspend it in 2001 after she was diagnosed with ovarian cancer. The couple had been trying for a baby before the cancer was diagnosed and decided to freeze six embryos for use after her treatment, which involved surgical removal of her ovaries.

But after they split up in 2002, Mr Johnston refused to allow the embryos to be used. Ms Evans claimed they represented her only chance of motherhood and that to destroy them infringed her human rights.

Asked what she would say to Mr Johnston, she replied: "I've pleaded with him before and it has not worked so there's nothing I can say to him any more."

Mr Johnston, 30, an IT engineer, said he felt relieved by yesterday's verdict, reached by a majority of 13 judges to four. "I had hoped that common sense and the legal framework would hold up. I'm grateful that it has done so... Being a mother is still an option to her that does not involve me."

The human rights judges said the central dilemma was an "entirely irreconcilable" conflict between Ms Evans and her former boyfriend. Their ruling reflected that of every lower court and is in line with British law, which requires that both the man and woman give consent and allows either party to withdraw consent up to the point where the embryos are implanted.

Dr Allan Pacey, the secretary of the British Fertility Society, said the outcome was a "very sad situation" for Ms Evans but it was "only fair" the principle of shared responsibility had been upheld.

The Liberal Democrat MP Dr Evan Harris said until egg freezing became reliable, women having their ovaries removed should be counselled about "the option of having some eggs fertilised by donor sperm prior to embryo freezing".

The ruling was opposed by Anna Smajdor, a researcher in medical ethics at Imperial College, London. Ms Smajdor said that there was "something deeply amiss" in a society that allowed one party to destroy embryos simply because they contained some of their genes.