A husband and wife have taken a High Court action seeking damages claiming their five embryos stored at a fertility clinic became contaminated and had to be destroyed.

The couple, who had opted for embryo freezing before the woman had chemotherapy for breast cancer, claim they have lost the chance to have children.

They have sued Human Assisted Reproduction Ireland Ltd, with registered offices at Merrion Square, Dublin. It was in 2019 trading as Rotunda IVF at the National Fertility Centre in the Rotunda Hospital, Dublin and is now located in Swords Business Campus in north Co Dublin.

On March 12th, 2019, the couple were told 17 eggs had been harvested, eight had matured and five had fertilised. Two days later, it is claimed, they were informed that a serious adverse event had occurred in the laboratory—the possible contamination from another unidentified sperm sample—rendering their five embryos unusable.