Surrogate sues fertility clinic for using her egg without consent

Alicia Chonn was blindsided when her friend gave birth to a baby genetically related to Alicia.
In a lawsuit filed in BC Supreme Court against the fertility clinic and their doctors, Chonn explained that she had agreed with her friend to be a surrogate and to carry a child conceived with Alicia's eggs.

Some of Alicia's eggs were removed, and fertilized with sperm from her friend's husband "in vitro" (in a petri dish) and then frozen.

What happened next shocked Chonn. She had agreed to carry the child, but, instead, the fertilized egg was implanted in her friend without her knowledge or consent.

Chonn doesn't blame her friend.  She blames the clinic and its doctors for using her eggs for a purpose never disclosed to her. 

The clinic had called her while she was driving to work, to ask for her consent to use one of the embryos to impregnate her friend, telling her that her friend was prepped and ready to be impregnated with Chonn's egg, fertilized by her friend's husband's sperm.

Chonn says she did not consent to the procedure, but it happened anyway.

​It is illegal under the Assisted Human Reproduction Act to use anyone's genetic material without their consent.   For CBC's story, go here.