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Judge Sides with Husband, Orders Embryos Destroyed
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A judge in California ruled that a divorced woman must discard five frozen embryos in accordance with an agreement between her and her ex-husband.
Divorcee Mimi Lee signed a written consent with her former husband to destroy the couple's embryos if they got divorced.
Lee, 46, said the embryos are her last chance to have her own child. Lee said cancer made it risky for her to get pregnant.
The court overruled her objections on grounds that the agreement trumps her desire to keep the embryos.
Lee's ex-husband, Stephen Findley, wants to discard the embryos in part over concern that his former wife could use children to take financial advantage of him, according to the ruling.
The Los Angeles Times reports that the 83-page decision by Judge Anne-Christine Massullo is a "disturbing consequence of modern biological technology -- that the fate of nascent human life, which the embryos in this case represent, must be determined in a court by reference to cold legal principles."
The tentative nature of the ruling gives the parties time to file objections, but such rulings generally become final.
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