Fertility clinic blamed over 'extra child'

LONDON, England -- A British woman who gave birth to triplets has won a landmark case after a judge ruled the fertility clinic that treated her was to blame for her having too many children.

Britain's High Court ruled that the clinic had breached its contract when treating Patricia Thompson, 34, by implanting three embryos rather than the two they had agreed on.

She and her husband Peter, 57, are claiming damages for the cost of raising the third triplet -- which local media estimated at around £100,000 pounds ($140,000).

"I think two is more than enough for anyone to have. I just wanted to have two babies or a baby," Thompson, from south Yorkshire, told the court.

"I wouldn't have wanted three implanting because of the consultation given in the beginning. The doctor explained so thoroughly the risk of carrying a third child."

Current guidelines recommend no more than two embryos are implanted during fertility treatment. However, at the time it was normal practice to implant three.

The doctor who carried out the procedure could not remember the actual case and had no written record of the couple's request to implant only two.

Since the birth of the triplets in 1997, Thompson and her husband have had a fourth child conceived naturally. Her husband also has three children from a previous relationship.

The couple got legal aid to sue Sheffield Fertility Clinic for breach of contract, claiming they never agreed to the implantation of a third embryo when Mrs Thompson had fertility treatment in 1996.

The court heard that the couple, of Thrybergh, South Yorkshire, opted to pay £1,600 for private fertility treatment at the clinic after unsuccessfully trying for children for five years.

She fought the case to get compensation for the third child she says she never wanted to conceive, despite admitting that the triplets are "a joy" to her.

The couple were not prepared to abort one of the triplets to give the other two foetuses a better chance.

Mrs Thompson was offered foetal reduction when her pregnancy was confirmed but she told the court: "I don't agree with foetal reduction or abortion. Once that baby is put inside you it then becomes a baby, so there's no way."

Mrs Thompson told the court she was only informed that three embryos had been implanted after the 10-minute procedure had been carried out.

She said: "I am delighted with our children, who are fit and healthy, but the effort of looking after three children rather than the maximum of two that we had planned is absolutely exhausting and stretches our physical resources.

"It is likely that the economic pressure on us will increase as time goes on, and the purpose of the claim that I make is to seek redress for the additional child who we had not originally intended to conceive."

The doctor who carried out the procedure, Dr Sundav Sugantha, who was working in an unpaid training post, said she could not remember the actual procedure but was confident she would have followed her normal practice of agreeing how many embryos were to be implanted immediately beforehand.

Clinic director Dr Elizabeth Lenton told the court: "In hindsight we would have handled the whole thing very much rigorously and have had her sign a consent to the change."

John Grace QC, for the Thompsons, said: "This was a slip up by an inexperienced trainee thinking she knew what was best for the patient.

"There was some pressure on time and pressures to improve the results of the clinic."

The High Court, in Sheffield, northern England, is not expected to rule how much they will receive until early next year.

Reuters contributed to this report.

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The Society for the Study of Fertility
The Court Service website
Sheffield Fertility Clinic

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