Dr. Mary Wingfield:

If a couple are in a loving relationship and want to have children and have had IVF treatment, have embryos frozen, this is something of grave concern to any couple in Ireland at present going through assisted reproduction treatment. Part of the treatment is that it is only safe to transfer one or two embryos to a woman's uterus at a time, so many couples end up with frozen embryos and they may have a child and have frozen embryos. They will then come back to use those frozen embryos in later years. If in the meantime the male partner dies, the woman is left with those frozen embryos. Many couples would like the opportunity to be able to state in advance that if anything happened to either of them they would like those embryos to be used.