Nicole Ryan (Sinn Fein)

Melanie is a constituent of mine. She has bravely shared her heartbreaking story following the loss of her husband, Dylan, to cancer earlier this year, and he was only 32 years old. Before Dylan began chemotherapy, they followed the best medical advice and arranged to freeze his sperm. With full consent, Dylan signed the necessary forms, clearly stating that Melanie could use the samples in the event of his death. Yet when Melanie attended her consultation this year, those critical forms were missing from the digital system. Only a hard copy existed at the time, so they had not actually been scanned into the system at all. The clinic, rightly concerned, had its solicitor draft fresh documents for Dylan to sign to reconfirm his wishes, which he did just weeks before he died.

Melanie finds herself in a cruel limbo at the moment. Despite having full legal consent and paying monthly to store Dylan's samples, she is being told there is no protocol for a widow in her situation. She has been advised to wait until December and then reapply in the hope that the national guidelines might be in place by then. However, Melanie does not have the luxury of time at the moment. Her fertility tests have shown that she has a lower egg reserve than expected for her age, and her window is narrowing. While she waits, she is being told that she could have an easier access route to fertility from a random donor than from her late husband, the very person she planned that future with. It is just disgraceful to have that, it really is. That is a massive and indefensible gap in our fertility and reproductive care, so I urge that we have a debate with the Minister for Health on this to see how we could help families who are navigating both loss and fertility. They deserve support, clarity and proper legislation on this, not just bureaucracy, red tape and delays.