JERUSALEM (VINnews) — In a dramatic reversal of the lower court’s decision, the Israeli Central District court ruled Monday in favor of the couple who gave birth to a baby girl following an in-vitro fertilization (IVF) mix-up, determining that they will remain her legal parents despite the lack of genetic connection. Ynet reports that the court upheld the birth parents’ parental rights while recognizing the importance of maintaining a connection between the child and her biological parents.
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The case arose from an IVF error at the Assuta Medical Center in Rishon Lezion, where an embryo belonging to another couple was mistakenly implanted in the mother’s womb. The mistake was discovered through genetic testing after the child’s birth. A lower court had ruled a few months ago that the child, named Sophia, who is already nearly three years old, should be returned to her biological parents, but the birth parents appealed the decision.
The couple who are raising Sophia expressed relief and joy following the court’s decision. “We are thrilled and emotional over the ruling that corrected the injustice done to us in the lower court,” they said in a statement.
“We pray this decision will give our daughter and us the peace we need to continue her development. We are focused solely on our child and want to raise her in security and quiet, as any parent would.” They also expressed hope that, with time, both sides would have space to process the ruling, potentially opening the door for some level of future communication.
Attorney Galit Kerner, who represented the couple raising Sophia, welcomed the court’s decision. “This is a sensitive and humane ruling that affirms a mother and father cannot and should not be separated from the child they carried and have lovingly raised,” she said.
The biological parents of the child, however, reacted with dismay. “We are shocked and heartbroken by this decision, which reverses the ruling of the Family Court,” they said in a statement. “This ruling sends the painful message that even the most serious mistakes and injustices are not only left uncorrected but legitimized and perpetuated by the state. We are solely focused on Sophia’s well-being, her future, her identity and her life story. The idea that our daughter will grow up in the result of a mistake that could have been corrected early on is unbearable. Her whole life is ahead of her, and we firmly believe that her long-term best interest is to grow up with her biological family, to whom she belongs and resembles.”
Attorneys Shmuel Moran and Noa Gelerman Liel, who represent the biological parents, criticized the ruling, calling it a dangerous precedent. “This effectively amounts to a redistribution of children in society. It sends a perilous message, particularly in the realm of fertility treatments and birth,” they said. The biological parents said that they will appeal the decision in Israel’s Supreme Court.
The District Court cited several factors in its ruling, emphasizing that the woman who gave birth to Sophia had carried the pregnancy without knowing of the error. The judges highlighted that she risked her own life to save the baby, undergoing an in utero surgery despite medical advice to terminate the pregnancy due to detected heart defects. The court noted that both she and her partner had devoted themselves to the child’s care and well-being. Since her birth, Sophia has undergone three operations to correct her heart defect, and the birth parents accompanied her in all of these procedures.
Given the complexities of artificial reproduction and the potential for human error, the court stated that prioritizing the “principle of certainty” is crucial — affirming that the birth mother should be recognized as the child’s legal parent. This principle, the ruling argued, prevents the need for retroactive genetic testing to determine legal parentage in future fertility errors. Instead, genetic testing should only serve to inform the child about their full life story, rather than dictate legal custody.
The judges referenced Israeli law, including surrogacy regulations, egg donation laws, and civil registry statutes, as well as Jewish legal interpretations, to support their decision. “Just as a fetus is not removed from the womb of a gestational mother, so too should a newborn not be taken from her hands. The nurturing womb and the embracing arms of the birth mother are one and the same,” the ruling stated.
The court also determined that the woman’s partner should be recognized as Sophia’s legal father, based on his parental connection to the birth mother. The judges further ruled that it was in Sophia’s best interest to remain with the only parents she has ever known, citing her medical and developmental challenges and the potential irreversible harm that could result from severing that bond.
At the same time, the court emphasized the importance of ensuring Sophia learns about her origins in an age-appropriate manner, as recommended by professional experts. The welfare authorities will oversee a structured plan to facilitate ongoing contact between the child and her biological parents while maintaining legal parental rights solely with the couple raising her.
This follows the halacha.
According to Targum Yoinoson, Dino and Yosef were both transplanted and remained as off springs of their birth-mother.
This is consistent with Halacha, which usually holds that the mother who gave birth, is the real mother; not the 1 whose egg was used.
Wow this is really painful and difficult to reconcile
But I agree there needs to be a precedent in such cases because these situations are bound to happen. People who spend tens of thousands of dollars and shed buckets of tears to have a child should not have that child- perhaps the only one they will ever have- callously taken away because the wrong embryo was implanted.
I feel bad for whoever made that mistake.
It’s 2025. We need to find a way to have more than two parents on a birth certificate. Not just for situations like these, but for adoptions as well.