A COUPLE in East China’s Anhui Province have decided to reconcile to the fact that a hospital injected an embryo other than their own into the woman’s womb during in vitro fertilization (IVF) more than a decade ago by mistake, according to media reports Tuesday.

The couple, now divorced, said they would continue to love and raise the child as their own.

The hospital was found fully liable for the incident and ordered to pay 640,000 yuan ($93,055) in compensation to the couple after an initial trial by a local court.

In 2011, Chen Dong (alias) and his ex-wife Wang Lei (alias) had a child named Xiao Xuan through IVF at the First Affiliated Hospital of Anhui Medical University. However, in 2020, when the kid turned 8, they were shocked to discover that the boy was not biologically related to either of them.

The news caused a stir on Chinese social media, particularly after the hospital responded by stating that they could not trace the embryo and urged the couple to be “open-minded” about the mix-up.

Chen contacted the hospital in an effort to determine the biological parents of his child, as this information would be needed if a bone marrow transplant were ever required from a blood relative.

The case has sparked intense debate about how to address medical negligence in cases involving IVF surgery so that similar incidents wouldn’t happen again in the future.

It is not clear how the mix-up occurred, but if it was intentional and without consent from the parents, the hospital may have violated China’s regulations on human assisted reproductive technology and ethical principles, said Wang Yue, a professor of Medical Ethics and Law at Peking University.

At the time of the incident in 2011, China was still in the early development of artificial reproductive technology, and there were few standards in place for its management and supervision, noted Wang.

There were only a few relevant regulations in place at the time, including the “Norms for Human Assisted Reproductive Technology” from 2003. In 2013 and 2019, Chinese health authorities issued new regulations aimed at reducing the risks associated with assisted reproductive technology.

The National Health Commission (NHC) has initiated the drafting of the “Regulations on the Management of Assisted Reproductive Technology.”

As the hospital failed to restore the embryos, trace medical records or verify the identity of the embryos, it could face an administrative penalty of up to 30,000 yuan, according to Wang, citing the latest edition of the regulations.

Wang called for legislative bodies to impose higher penalties on such cases to serve as a deterrent to wrongdoers.(Global Times)