A British woman has lost a legal battle to have children using frozen embryos fertilised by her former partner, who no longer wants her to have his baby.
The European Court of Human Rights' final court of appeal, the Grand Chamber, upheld an earlier rejection of Natallie Evans' submission that her human rights were infringed by British court rulings which said her former fiance Howard Johnston was entitled to block her use of the embryos.
The European court said there had been no violation of the right to life, the right to respect for private and family life enshrined in Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights, or of the prohibition of discrimination.
"The Grand Chamber considered that, given the lack of European consensus, the fact that the domestic rules were clear and brought to the attention of the applicant and that they struck a fair balance between the competing interests, there had been no violation of Article 8," the court said in a statement.
Johnston said after the decision: "I feel that once again, common sense has prevailed."
He said that he was "relieved" at the decision, and that he wanted to be able to choose with whom and when to become a parent. It was a matter of principle, he added.
The 35-year-old Evans' bid for a baby began in 2000 when she and Johnston sought fertility treatment at a clinic in Bath, southwest England. During an examination she was diagnosed with a pre-cancerous condition of her ovaries.
Prior to the surgical removal of her ovaries, she and Johnston had IVF (in vitro fertilisation) and six embryos were created in 2001. They were later frozen and put into storage.
The couple later separated and Johnston then withdrew his consent for the embryos to be used.
He argued he did not want her to have his baby because he did not want the financial or emotional burden of being a father to a child he would not bring up.
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