A couple has filed a complaint with the Andalusian Health Service after discovering that their baby, born at the Puerta del Mar Hospital in Cádiz in 2021 after an assisted fertilization process, is the mother’s biological child but not the father’s. The complaint, made public by the Patient Advocate Association in a statement, warns of the “irreparable” damage that this situation will cause in this family. They demand compensation of one million euros to compensate the damage caused to the father, mother and child.
The events date back to 2019 when the couple, residing in Andalusia, decided to start an assisted reproduction process, which was successful in 2021, when “an oocyte retrieval for in vitro fertilization and then the embryo transfer” was carried out. It was a happy marriage that had achieved the dream of having a child together, until they realized the medical error they had suffered.
In the statement issued by the Association, it is understood that it was the couple’s environment that expressed their doubts about the lack of resemblance between the baby and the father. As a result, they consulted the baby’s birth certificate in February 2023 and realized that the baby’s blood group was not the one that corresponded to it, according to the double filtration of the parents’ blood groups. For this reason, they did a paternity test and their numerous doubts were confirmed. The result was “devastating”.
According to the lawyer Ignacio Martínez, the damage is “serious and irreparable” because the child “will be deprived for life of the natural biological bond with his father and his entire paternal family”; In addition to that “his own history and origin of him will always be a question.” The lawyer also warns that not knowing his biological father has health consequences “for not knowing the genetic profile of his ancestors, key in modern medicine.”
The Association requests the opening of an investigation to clarify the origin of the error, a maximum precaution in these assisted fertilization processes and to reveal whether it is an isolated and involuntary case.
