The Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation (SCJN) confirmed the protection granted to a woman so that, free of charge and as compensation, a fertility clinic keeps her embryos frozen for five years while she decides whether or not she wants to be a mother one day.
By majority vote the First Chamber of the Court supported the project of the ministeror Juan Luis Gonzalez Alcantara Carranca to confirm the amparo sentence that, as a conviction for civil liability of a company dedicated to assisted reproduction, orders the cryopreservation of a woman’s embryos for five years and, if she decides, perform in vitro fertilization, both free of charge.
The case derived from a civil liability trial by a woman who contracted the services of the company to increase her chances of pregnancy.
During her treatment, the woman was informed that in order to continue, it was necessary to have a fibroid removal.
The clinic performed the procedure and after this, the woman presented bleeding that, derived from negligent care by not having performed the corresponding procedures such as hemostasis (mechanism to stop bleeding), was complicated by severe abdominal sepsis.
The civil judge who heard the matter sentenced the company to pay compensation for moral damages, damages, losses and expenses that the woman incurred due to the medical negligence of which she was a victim.
On appeal, the sentence was modified but both the woman and the company processed an amparo against this second sentence where a Collegiate Court decided to grant federal protection but reduced the amount of compensation for non-pecuniary damage considering it disproportionate.
Again, both the company and the woman challenged through a review appeal that was resolved this Wednesday by the First Chamber of the Court.
The ministers considered that the guidelines established by the Collegiate Court in favor of the woman were the most appropriate in seeking that the damage caused to her can be reversed, at least legally, until the moment after the removal of the fibroids but before the negligence. medical incurred.
In this way, the woman’s embryos can be frozen to be implanted in the patient through in vitro fertilization, if she continues to want to be a mother.
“To the payment of the psycho-emotional treatment that the affected person must receive during the five-year period granted, to obtain the restoration of her psyche, so that she can make a free and informed decision regarding the continuation of In Vitro Fertilization”indicates the resolution confirmed by the Court.
Likewise, the Chamber confirmed the reduction of the amount of compensation for non-pecuniary damage determined by the Collegiate.
“The consideration of the financial capacity of the person responsible, as an element to quantify the amount of compensation for non-pecuniary damage, respects the right to equality and non-discrimination, as well as the privacy and intimacy of individuals, since its use It implies a rational tool that allows individualizing the sanction imposed on the person who commits damage, so that it is punitive, in accordance with its economic reality, and compensatory, in relation to the damage committed.specified the Chamber.
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