SAN FRANCISCO—On Monday, July 13, a couple will appear in San Francisco Superior Court to decide the future of five frozen embryos.
In September 2010, Mini Lee married Stephen Lindley, but it was not the perfect wedding that the couple had been hoping for. A little over a week before the wedding, Lee was diagnosed with breast cancer.
Lee wanted to be a mother and feared that this diagnosis would prevent her from having children in the future. She was informed that factors of chemotherapy treatment and her age, which was 41 at the time, would make it difficult to bear children. The couple then opted for in vitro fertilization (IVF) and a surrogate to carry their children.
IVF is a process in which an egg is combined with sperm outside the body, usually in a laboratory. The average cost of a procedure like this ranges between $12,000 and $15,000, according to IHR.com, an infertility resource website. The success rate of IVF, according to 2013 statistics composed by the Advanced Fertility Center of Chicago, is about 40 percent for women 40 under, with the percentage decreasing as the ages of the women increase.
Lee underwent surgery before her wedding. The surgery, known as a lumpectomy, aimed to remove cancer cells from the breast. Upon return from her honeymoon, Lee discovered that all the cancer cells were not successfully removed. She then underwent a mastectomy which removed all her breast tissue, followed by reconstructive surgery.
In September 2013, Stephen Lindley filed for divorce and asked for the frozen embryos to be destroyed. Lee wants to keep the embryos and claims that she does not seek any type of support from Findley. The court will decide how this divorced couple and their embryos shall proceed.
