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Good morning and welcome to the Daily OS. It's Wednesday, the sixteenth of April. I'm Emma Gillespie, I'm Billy Fitzimon's. The story of an IVF mix up that led to a woman giving birth to a stranger's baby has made global headlines this month. The shocking incident might sound like something out of a movie, or certainly something from another country,
but it has unfolded right here in Australia. The Queensland Fertility Clinic at its center monash IVF in Brisbane, has launched an investigation, but ultimately has blamed the mix up on human error. In today's deep dive, we are going to explore the legal questions raised by this mistake and the ramifications it could have for the fertility industry.
Now, this story has captured international attention and it's easy to understand why I have never heard of anything like this happening yet before. Before we explain the fallout and what it means for the families and also the clinic involved, do you want to just take us through and what exactly happened here?
Yes?
So last week this shocking story broke where we learned that a Brisbane fertility clinic is investigating after it found out that a woman gave birth to a baby that wasn't biologically hers. So that woman was a patient of this clinic, Monash IVF, undergoing treatment there for in vitro fertilization, and during that process she was implanted with the wrong embryo, a fertilized egg that belonged to another couple also doing
IVF through Monash in Brisbane at that clinic. Now, in terms of IVF in Australia where things are at, we're talking about the most commonly used form of assisted reproductive technology in the country. To give you a sense of how popular it is, there are around nineteen thousand babies born through IVF in Australia every year, and as a country, we really are considered one of the world leaders in this space. We're considered to be one of the safest places in the world to have a baby through IVF.
I think that's part of what makes this so shocking, is just how common IVF is in Australia. Yeah, and I think the question that everyone has, I know I have, is how did this possibly happen. And at what point did they realize that this woman had been implanted with the wrong embryo.
Yes, so it was this result of an incorrect transfer of an embryo. Now, if you're going through IVF for couples doing IVF, the process might involve egg dodonation and sperm donation and then fertilizing an embryo externally outside of the body. Through IVF, that embryo gets transplanted into the womb and hopefully a person falls pregnant through that process. Yes, the clinic said that in February it learned that one of its patients had been implanted with the wrong embryo,
with an embryo that was not her own. And I think everyone really wants this to be more controversial or a more satisfying kind of reason for why or how this happened, but they've put it down to human error. Basically, that's all we know about why this happened. And in terms of how they found out, the woman involved wanted to transfer her remaining embryos to another IVF provider, so she had an embryo implanted. She had a pregnancy that went to full term, she gave birth to a baby.
And then this couple said to Monash IVF, hey, can you please send out embryos somewhere else?
And when Monash.
IVF looked at those embryos, there were an unexpected number, so they found out that there were extra embryos in storage of those birth parents. That then led to an internal investigation that confirmed that an embryo from a different cup had been incorrectly thawed and transferred to the birth parents, resulting in the birth of the child. Monash says that it is truly sorry and it's now conducting a full review of its processes.
My goodness, you can't even imagine how it must have felt. A when they discovered that that mistake had been made. Yeah, but then B when the family was told that the wrong embryo had been implanted in.
Them, Oh, devastating.
And after having gone through a full pregnancy and birth process.
Couples who use.
IVF, you know, typically it's not easy for them to conceive, so to jump through so many hurdles and get to that point, I'm sure was completely earth shattering.
And just to be clear, so we know that they discovered this in February, and at that point the woman had already given birth and they were raising this baby.
Yes, So we don't have any information on the age of the baby or the names of the couples and families involved.
Those details have been kept private.
We really don't know how old this child is, but the clinic have referred to this embryo and a baby, so you know, we can assume that it's probably happened within the last year.
And do we know what happens now, not just what action was taken once they found out that this mistake had been made, but also what happens now to the baby.
Yes, So the clinic has been really transparent over the last week in terms of what it's doing, what it's done, and what it plans to do going forward. Its executive team was alerted within hours of that discovery in February, and then the regulator, which is the Fertility Society of Australia and New Zealand, was also notified that same week. So this has all been bubbling under the surface since February, but we the public have obviously only learned about it
in the last week. In a statement, Monashe IVF said an independent investigation is now underway alongside full process reviews of its laboratory safety measures. Medical Groups CEO Michael Knapp said the clinic has apologized to everyone involved and said
ongoing support will be provided to the parents. He added that while the clinic is quote devastated, it is confident that this was an isolated incident, but the whole debarcle has really raised questions about what happens next for these families, what it's going to mean from a legal perspective, who gets custody, have any laws been broken, Will Monash be sued or even face criminal action, etc.
Usually when we look at what the legalities around a case are, we will look at the precedents or to see if anything like this has happened before.
Has anything like this has happened before?
So adding to the uncertainty, I suppose, is the fact that this incident is thought to be the first of its kind in Australia. So there are no known examples that have happened within Australia, but there are a few international examples that could provide a bit of a roadmap for the way forward. Mind you, they all come out of the US, these recent examples. So in twenty twenty one, a similar mix up occurred in the state of California.
Two couples went through a clinic there and they ended up raising babies that weren't biologically theirs for three months before the error was detected. They did end up swapping custody of the children, but both families sued that clinic, and one family went public speaking about the psychological harm that came from the incident. They said it was incredibly traumatizing to go through. Also in California, a couple of years earlier, in a separate clinic, there was a mix up.
That clinic was sued by a couple overclaims their embryo was mistakenly implanted in a different woman who gave birth to their son in twenty nineteen. And then more recently, a woman in Georgia in the US sued a clinic she had gone through IVF. She is a white woman, her sperm donor was also white, but she gave birth to a baby of African American appearance, and that's how that particular mix up ended up coming to light. But they all have very similar kind of origins and do
relate to what's gone on here in Queensland. But while there are those concerning examples out of the US, this is so rare and even rarer in Australia, to the point of you know, Monash IVF in their response pointing out that this is quote an isolated incident, which you know, I'm sure everyone hopes that that is absolutely true.
What has the response been like within the assisted fertility industry to this story?
So we have heard from that regulator that I mentioned earlier, the Fertility Society of Australia and New Zealand FSA and Z i'll call them. It's a body that sets out the standards and regulations for assisted reproductive technology in Australia. It's released a statement that said, quote the trust patient's place in our profession is sacred and we must continually
earn it through clear governance, shared responsibility and action. We ask that the privacy of the families involved is respected during this time as they work through what is undoubtedly a complex and personal situation. But this has reignited conversation about how IVF is regulated in Australia and safeguards and what those are and how they protect patients and babies. FSA and Z has actually been calling for a national roadmap.
This is well before this mix up unfolded. They are calling for this decade long roadmap to future proof the assisted fertility sector and to boost support for all families, including non traditional families. And in September last year, it actually handed down a review of the fertility sector. It called for urgent reforms to address a raft of issues,
including the falling birth rate and access and cost. But in terms of its relevancy for this story this week, this tenire National Fertility Roadmap includes calls for national fertility legislation to streamline regulations that differ between states and terror. Now, I didn't realize that those regulations differed between the states and territories, but f SA and Z called current inconsistencies a primary concern that significantly impact children, parents, donors, and
assisted reproductive technology in general. So this report called on health ministers to support the roadmap and ensure consistent legislation across the nation to lead to improved and more equitable outcomes for Australian families.
You saying that has caused a light bulb moment in my head, and I'm pretty sure we actually did cover it last September. We did when it came out, So we will put a link to that in the show notes. But m how would more regulation in the industry have potentially reduced the risk of what happened in Queensland happening.
Yeah, it's a really good question and I think there is no clear cut answer given how I suppose, well, the industry is perceived on a global scale to function and operate here in Australia.
But from these proposed.
Regulations, I think it's about centralizing standards and practices so that every state and territory is working consistently to the same level and adhering to the same kind of regulations. So, for example, this report suggested establishing a national register and a genetic bank to centralized genetic information of donors and
donor conceived children. It recommended national health standards for egg and sperm donation to ensure consistency and quote safe futures for children conceived by IVF and the regulator argues that these approaches, among other suggestions, would ensure consistent reproductive and privacy standards around the country now. At the time last September when this report was handed down, the government said
that it would carefully consider the proposed framework. That we haven't heard much since, and Shadow Health Minister Ann Rustin at the time acknowledged that more work was needed to improve policies.
And so, do we know what will happen to the custody of this child and is there anything within existing Australian legislation that kind of sets out a roadmap when this kind of thing happens, Although you did say that this has never happened before.
Well, this is where an already complex story probably gets even trickier because in Australia, biology and genetics don't actually determine who has the right to parent a child. And what that means in this instance is that we could be in for a really complicated custody battle. The child's biological parents have rights, but so does the birth mother, and this split between birth parents versus biological parents becomes quite crucial. And under Australian law, whoever gives birth to
the child is the legal mother. So there are obviously so many moral and ethical questions as well as the legal ones.
Raised by this issue.
And because we have very little information about the families at the center of this case, it's really unclear as to what the path forward in terms of custody could look like if we look to the US example, there was that bungle where a family agreed amicably to swap children. We're talking about one baby here, two sets of families involved. It's I'm sure going to be incredibly complex.
And you mentioned that IVF regulations differ state by state. What's the state of play in Queensland. Is there anything that we know about the state that could impact the next steps of this case.
So Queensland has actually faced its share of IVF controversies over recent years. It has led to some reform, but I suppose there has been a little bit of bad pr back to back for the industry in Queensland. Specifically. You might remember mid last year we covered a story about thousands of frozen sperm donations being destroyed in Queensland.
I do remember that.
I thought you might very sharp. She's got a good Philly. So the Health ovidsman in Queensland actually launched an investigation into fertility service providers in the state after there were several complaints from patients of alleged misconduct across the board. Now this wasn't about one provider specifically, it was a series of complaints and a trend that reflected concerns within the industry. So that investigation examined data from sperm donations over the past decade.
It looked into twenty four.
Clinics who were licensed to provide IVF and the regulator identified severe gaps and risks in the industry. Evidence from hundreds of complaints included the misplacement of sperm and eggs, the use of incorrect embryos, and mix ups in sperm samples. It also identified screening issues for donors and challenges and
shortcomings in record keeping. For example, quote failure to maintain accurate contact details for donors, an inadequate disclosure of medical information to donor conceived children and recipients.
Wow, how did the Queensland government respond?
It was quite a damning report and following the Queensland Government actually passed the state's first law on.
Assisted reproductive technology.
So under those laws, Queensland Health now has the power to inspect IVF providers. The government has also launched a Donor Conception Information Register to hold details about procedures in the state and when live births occur that are linked to IVF. So there has been a bit of an overhaul. But to your earlier question, you know whether or not that would have prevented this mishandling or all this mix up.
You know who could say, and back to this case. Just lastly, what has been the fallout for Monash IVF.
Yes, so, monasch IVF is a really huge provider in the IVF space. They run clinics right around the country, so we're talking about their Brisbane clinic, but this is a national organization. You may have actually heard of them before because there was a major class action settled last year involving Monash IVF. The provider was accused by more than seven hundred complainants of using inaccurate genetic testing and destroying potentially viable embryos. So at that time last year,
Monash agreed to a fifty six million dollar settlement. The fallout from that was quite public and there were a lot of on the record conversations in the media at the time from those seven hundred people who brought the action condemning Monash's practices. In terms of the legal action it could face in the future, we still don't know.
But this is a publicly listed company and their share price has fallen dramatically in the days since this news came to light so huge ramifications for a very large corporation there. We have heard from Queensland Health Minister Tim Nichols who says the government is watching Monash's handling of this current controversy closely and based on that it will assess how to proceed and if it's going to use
those new powers to monitor the clinics specifically. He said, we stand ready to provide whatever support we can to the families to resolve this terrible, terrible situation. As the regulator in the future, we will be ensuring that these organizations do everything they can to make sure this terrible type of event does not occur in the future. In a statement on Friday, Queensland Health said it would work with Monash IVF to reinforce safeguards and identify possible risks.
Wow, it's something that we will absolutely be keeping our eye on as any more information comes out.
Thanks for explaining it, em Thanks for having me.
I have to say before we leave this entire podcast, I've been thinking about my favorite book of all time, which is called The Light Between Oceans, and it is all about parents who raise a child who are different to the biological parents. And then it's this huge custody battle and I read it ten years ago and to this day, I don't know what the right answer was about who should have kept custody of the child.
Yeah, it's it's such an ethical and moral gray area, but there you go, a podcast and a book wreck or yes.
Thank you so much and for explaining again, and thank you to everyone who has listened to this podcast. We'll be back again this afternoon with your evening headlines, but until then, have a great day. My name is Lily Maddon and I'm a proud Arunda bunge Lung Chalcuttin woman from Gadighl country. The Daily oz acknowledges that this podcast is recorded on the lands of the Gadighl people and pays respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Island and nations.
We pay our respects to the first peoples of these countries, both past and present.