Can a contract trump nature? That's what's on the table in San Francisco Superior Court, where a divorcing couple is trying to get their voice to have the last word when it comes to a set of frozen fertilized embryos.
Stephen Findley and Mimi Lee Were married in 2010, but Lee got cancer shortly thereafter. After the diagnosis, Lee went to the UCSF Medical Center to save five embryos, which were fertilized by Findley and then frozen. Five years later, the two are getting divorced and the court will decide which side it will take. Lee wants to keep the fertilized embryos; Findley wants them to be destroyed.
This is not the first time this issue has come up in the news, or on our page. Actress Sophia Vergara has famously warred with her ex-fiancée over the embryos hey put aside. However, the Findley and Lee case is special because it will be the first time that a ruling in California will specifically discuss frozen embryos. According to the Contra Costa Times:
'[Lee's] lawyers are urging Superior Court Judge Anne-Christine Massullo to find that destroying the embryos would destroy an infertile woman's ability to "realize the fundamental and constitutionally protected bond of a parent and a child."
"We don't think the sky would fall," said Peter Skinner, one of her lawyers. "This is an issue of first impression in California, and there is a lot at stake.'
For more:
Destroy or not? Frozen embryos at center of California divorce war (Contra Costa Times)