British soap opera Emmerdale’s shocking plot involving stolen frozen embryos is a gripping one, but also quite an unnerving one if you are going through IVF.
For those of you unfamilar with the show, “Emmerdale” is a British soap opera that airs on ITV in the UK. Set in the fictional village of Emmerdale in the Yorkshire Dales, it focuses on the lives of the villagers and their various dramatic storylines involving love, betrayal, family dynamics, and community events. The show has been running since 1972 and is known for its compelling characters and engaging plot twists.
In tonight’s episode, Emmerdale viewers will witness Gus’s courtroom appearance for the theft of the embryos he and Rhona froze during their past relationship.
Rhona’s ex-husband Gus Malcolm, through forgery, obtained access to the embryos that Rhona believed were destroyed.
After Rhona and Gus parted ways, Gus deceitfully forged Rhona’s signature to gain control of the embryos. Gus proceeded to use the embryos to conceive a child with his partner Lucy.
In a recent episode Rhona confronts Gus and a heavily pregnant Lucy. The confrontation leads to Lucy going into premature labor, tragically resulting in her death due to excessive bleeding after giving birth to a daughter Ivy. Gus, devastated by Lucy’s demise, unjustly blames Rhona for the tragic outcome.
Struggling with his own profound grief, Gus faced the challenges of raising little Ivy following his wife’s tragic passing. Rhona’s fear of losing Ivy led her to kidnap the child, setting the stage for tonight’s courtroom drama.
We decided to talk about this rather scary Emmerdale storyline because we wanted to comfort you with the knowledge that clinics do their due dilegence and storylines like this are far fetched. The team at the Lister Fertility Clinic gave us this guidance..
If you and your partner break up during the IVF journey:
To use embryos in treatment or to remove them from storage requires a consent form from both patients. So, If you have created embryos with a partner and the relationship has broken down it is likely that you will not able to subsequently use them as one or both partners may withdraw their consent for the use or continued storage of these embryos.
- When the patient contacts the clinic, the paperwork for the stored embryos is clearly marked as dispute and not to be used.
- The patient withdrawing consent is informed that the clinic will contact the other party to advise them of this withdrawal and disposal of consent and the patient concerned is required to fill in a WCS HFEA form.
- If both parties consent to the withdrawal, embryos can be removed from storage.
- If there is a dispute, the patients are given 12 months “cooling off period” before embryos can be removed from storage. One month before the end of the cooling off period, the unit will contact both parties to find out if a mutual decision has been reached regarding the fate of the embryos.
- No embryos will be kept in storage beyond the statutory storage period.
