The Delhi High Court has granted permission to a 50-year-old woman to receive her cryopreserved embryos, even though she has crossed the statutory age threshold. The court emphasized that reproductive rights and access to parenthood cannot be diminished by a purely technical application of legal conditions.
Court's Rationale
Justice Purushaindra Kumar Kaurav, in a recent order, noted that the embryos were retrieved when the woman was undisputedly under 50 years of age. The court stated that the Assisted Reproductive Technology Regulation (ART) Act does not intend to create insurmountable barriers for continuing lawfully initiated treatment processes. The ART Act requires women to be between 21 and 50 years old, and men between 21 and 55 years old, to access assisted reproductive technology.
Reproductive Autonomy and Privacy
The court underscored that reproductive rights and the choice to become parents are intrinsically linked to constitutional protections of privacy and decisional autonomy. Denying the use of cryopreserved embryos solely because the petitioners had marginally crossed the age limit would not serve the objectives of the ART Act.
The court concluded: 'In view of the peculiar facts of the case, this court is of the considered opinion that denial of permission to utilise the remaining five cryopreserved embryos solely on account of the petitioners having marginally crossed the age threshold of the ART process would not subserve the object of the ART Act... The petitioners are permitted to undergo frozen embryo transfer of their remaining five cryopreserved embryos, with all medical safeguards.'
Background of the Case
The couple sought IVF treatment at a private hospital after the death of their son in May 2025. Following an unsuccessful embryo transfer, they requested the use of their remaining embryos. However, the hospital refused, citing the woman's age exceeding the upper limit.
The court noted that at the time of embryo retrieval, the woman was 49 years, 11 months, and 14 days old, which was within the legal age limit. The couple was not seeking fresh extraction but rather the use of embryos already retrieved when they met the statutory requirements.
Currently, the woman is 50 years and 2 months old. The court observed that there was no medical evidence indicating that using the existing cryopreserved embryos would pose any immediate or exceptional medical risk beyond general policy concerns.
