Fertility patients win high court battle to save embryos after consent error
More than a dozen fertility patients have won a high court battle to save their embryos, eggs and sperm from destruction after errors meant they did not renew consent to store them within the 10-year window required by law.Ruling that the material could be kept, the judge said they should not “have the possibility of parenthood … removed by the ticking of a clock”.Lawyers for 15 groups affected by the errors – some of them former cancer patients – asked the court in London to declare it would be lawful for the embryos or cells to remain in storage, despite the consent expiring in June last year.In some cases this was because fertility clinics failed to notify those affected.In an unusual situation, the move was unopposed, with no objections from the clinics, the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority or the health secretary.
Mrs Justice Morgan ruled that it would be lawful in 14 of the 15 cases for the material to continue to be stored and used,She said laws around human fertilisation and embryology were “unbending” but “the rigidity of the scheme is not rigidity for its own sake”,She continued: “It is surely consent that is important, not consent by an immutable date,I find it hard to conclude that parliament intended the possibility of parenthood should be removed by the ticking of a clock, not in the cliched phrase, the ticking of the biological clock, but by the ticking of the clock beyond midnight of the day when existing consent expires, whatever might be the circumstances,”Under the law, fertility clinics need written consent from clients every decade to continue storing biological material.
The rules are intended to prevent cells being kept or used without people’s knowledge or permission,Owing to delays and issues accessing fertility treatment during the pandemic, the law allowed for a two-year extension, meaning people using the service on 1 July 2020 were granted extra time,Confusion caused by the extension meant some clinic users were not notified when they needed to renew consent, so it lapsed,In the one case where the judge ruled against, the circumstances were legally different,Morgan said the pair involved had not originally consented to an embryo being stored but one had been retained accidentally and they now wished to use it.
She said: “There was never, on their case, a consent to renew,To be permitted to take advantage of the storage of the embryo which they say ‘contradicted’ their express wishes because the clinic acted on the wrong consent form to change their mind is not in my judgment renewing consent,It is a change of consent,”
The Guide #230: From Oasis to Bowie, your stories of seeing pre-stardom acts
From the Beatles slogging through mammoth sets for jeering sailors in Hamburg basement bars, to Ed Sheeran playing just about every open mic night in the south of England, even the biggest acts had to start small. So when we asked Guide readers to share their memories of seeing now-massive bands and artists before they were famous, it was inevitable we’d get some great tales. So much so, in fact, that we’ve decided to devote the main chunk of this week’s Guide to your pre-fame gig recollections. We’ve also asked Guardian music writers – seasoned veterans of seeking out the next big thing – to share a few of their memories. Read on for tales of Kurt Cobain in Yorkshire, Playboi Carti’s set in an east London snooker club and an ill-advised David Bowie mime performance …PulpIn 1991, I was a young music writer starting out when I came across a pre-fame Pulp (pictured above) at a short-lived event called Piece Hall Live in Halifax
The Southbank Centre is striking, polarising and now protected | Letters
Fiona Twycross, the heritage minister, is to be congratulated for finally giving London’s Southbank Centre Grade II listing (Campaigners welcome ‘long overdue’ listing of brutalist Southbank Centre, 10 February).I remember being shocked when I first saw it in the 1960s, but it has become a remarkable symbol of the zeitgeist.Its grey concrete and its childlike composition together express the fatalism and despair of a nation in economic and political decline.Such a prominent display of ugliness on the banks of the Thames needs protection, for more optimistic future generations will surely wish to see it demolished.Francis BownLondon The news about the Southbank Centre reminded me of a mystery coach trip I joined in 1972 as a first-year university student
Jimmy Kimmel on Maga: ‘It’s such a delicate balance between stupid and evil’
Jimmy Kimmel talked about Pam Bondi and this week’s judiciary hearings as well as the latest climate-destroying victory for the Trump administration.The late-night host said that Donald Trump “might be feeling a bit lonely this Valentine’s Day” as his recent fundraising email leads with the question: “Do you still love me?”Kimmel said that then, “like a lot of dirtbag boyfriends, it asks you for money”.He said that for Valentine’s Day, Donald and Melania Trump will be enjoying dinner – “separately of course” – before speculating that over at JD Vance’s household, the vice-president won’t be getting his wife a gift as “he likes it when she makes him go sleep on the couch”. Kimmel joked: “That’s his sexy time.”This week Vance has been “weakly defending his boss” with yet more anger over “what are now known as the Trump-Epstein files” given how many times the president is mentioned in them
Jimmy Kimmel on the US justice department’s handling of the Epstein files: ‘A brazen cover-up’
Late-night hosts recapped US attorney general Pam Bondi’s contentious congressional hearing as she faced tough questions over the justice department’s handling of the Jeffrey Epstein files.Jimmy Kimmel opened Wednesday’s monologue with a begrudging acknowledgement that Donald Trump won the one and only “Undisputed Champion of Coal Award” from an organization called “the Washington Coal Club”. The prize “brings his real award total to zero”, he joked.“All he wants is awards and for everything to be named after him,” he continued. “The Kennedy Center, Dulles airport, Penn Station – I mean, if that’s the way to keep him happy, I have another suggestion for something we could name after him
Fantastic. Great move. Well done Angus: the story of one of Australia’s favourite political memes
OK, Josh, so there’s a leadership challenge incoming, but everyone is talking about this “Fantastic. Great move. Well done Angus” meme, so where did it come from?It’s one of the great memes of Australian political history, Krishani. Let’s go back to May 2019, when Taylor was the minister for energy in the Morrison government. Just weeks before then PM Scott Morrison would win “the unwinnable election” against Bill Shorten, Taylor was in the midst of local politicking, posting on Facebook about transport projects in his electorate of Hume
Comedians pick on me for my loud laugh – but nothing will make me stop | Jane Howard
I thought Daniel Kitson was just about ready to kick me out of the comedy room. He had already picked on me several times for laughing too loud, too readily (“that wasn’t even a joke”, he chastised me at one point). I was trying hard to suppress my laughter – to hold it in, to hold it back, to not fully express the joy I was feeling. I was being somewhat successful. And then I wasn’t
Grand National field ‘stands out’ in 2026 with elite runners and promising underdogs
A part-time job and DJ gigs helped Lara Hamilton reach the Winter Olympics. Now she wants to put Australia on the map
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Elana Meyers Taylor’s victory in her fifth Olympics was about far more than gold
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