The embryo law initially stopped Renee’s desire to have children. It works like this: according to the law embryos from a deceased partner can only be used with the express written consent of the partner in question. And Renee was not told that when she started the process with her husband at the Kinderwens Medical Center in Leiderdorp.
Emotional process
Renee is already a mother, together with her husband Marijn she had daughter Yora. It resulted from an ICSI treatment, a kind of IVF. Renee was not allowed to use the remaining fertilized embryos from that treatment because the clinic indicated that her husband’s permission was required, but that was not possible because he had died suddenly. So she went to court. “So many people told me not to do it because it would cost me a lot of money and cause me a lot of grief. They said I wouldn’t be right and that it would be an emotional process.”
It was indeed a long and emotional process, she now tells RTL News. Still, she persevered and the judge ultimately ruled in her favor. “That is terribly nice. So beautiful. I had chosen to have children with this man. Preferably with him there, of course, but unfortunately he is no longer there,” she says.
Even though the law clearly states that written consent from the deceased person is required, it was clear to Renee: she and her husband had jointly chosen to freeze the fertilized embryos in order to have a second child at a later time. “My husband can’t sign his name, but who knows him better than me?”
The judge ultimately found the interests of the unborn child more important than the legislation itself. So he made Renee’s wish come true. That is also good news for her daughter Yora. “She can simply have a full-blooded brother or sister with the same history. That is very valuable, if only because I can later tell my child who her father was.”
Relief about the verdict
The Medisch Centrum Kinderwens also stated that it was relieved to have heard the verdict of the court in The Hague. It offers a way out of the legal stalemate that had arisen over the posthumous use of frozen embryos. “We are pleased that further steps are open to Mrs. Zielhorst, her family and relatives to fulfill her deeply felt desire to have children.”
The way is now open for Renee to do what she wants: to become a mother to her deceased husband again. “After the verdict, a lot has been lost. I no longer have to be so combative. Now there is also room for mourning for my deceased husband. And if all goes well, a part of him will soon return.”
2023-10-05 14:17:07
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