The future of a child whose birth mother was mistakenly given a stranger's embryo is a legal and ethical "nightmare" without precedent. Monash IVF, which operates across Australia, has apologised after a patient at one of its Brisbane clinics had an embryo incorrectly transferred to her, meaning she unwittingly gave birth to another woman's child. Monash said the situation was the result of "human error". It leads into all sorts of custody questions as well once you start looking at who then are the parents and whether the child is raised by the biological parents or by the parents who carried and gave birth to the child. Dr Hugh Breakey, a senior research fellow in moral philosophy and the deputy director of the Griffith University Institute for Ethics, Governance and Law, said the situation amounted to an “incredible ethical tangle”. "It will wind up being a parental decision and we can only hope that it is done in a really considered and reflective way," Breakey said. "It is one of those cases where we have two claims that are both on their face legitimate, but both cannot possibly be realised. Sometimes we have to rise above and say it's not about what we are owed, it's what this child is owed, and we have to do the best thing for them." The case has created considerable concern among donor-conceived people, including many who have been lobbying for stronger disclosure laws and other protections such as a national register. Legal and ethical 'nightmare' after woman gives birth to stranger's child due to Monash IVF mistake, Ben Smee, The Guardian, 10 April 2025 The "ethics nightmare" referred to in the article did not actually have anything to do abortion, but I would say this issue could raise some very big ethical issues when it comes to the question of abortion. If a woman in considering aborting after she finds out the baby inside her is not hers.
It's normally in the context of claims about the lack of father's say in abortion decisions, but applies here too; I see a fundamental difference between the rights and responsibilities of biological parents and the rights and responsibilities of someone who is pregnant. In the vast majority of cases this is confused because the biological mother is also the one who is pregnant and so they have a combination of both sets of rights and responsibilities, but it is important to acknowledge and remember because of cases like this (and, slightly more commonly, things like planned surrogacy).
The birth mother surrogate the child who is the biological child of the male and female who created him/her and of course the child's right to be with their biological parents. If those parent choose to give up their rights a parents not wanting the child then of course the birth mother could adopt.
But imagine a mother realizing that another woman is going to kill her unborn baby - mistakenly put in the wrong body - and there's nothing she can do about it.
