Women unite in fight of love versus the law

Steve Butler The West Australian April 19, 2004

A Perth woman who made an IVF egg donation and the grateful mother who received it are being denied their long-held wish to meet due to a law which has never been tested in court.

Cyntra, whose full name has been withheld by The West Australian, has been swapping emotional letters with the parents of the 20-month-old child through the IVF clinic which accepted her donation in October 2001.

The child's legal mother has written to the donor, saying she wants her to be involved in the boy's upbringing, and the donor has replied that she would be delighted to play a role.

But the clinic has said it was prevented from putting the pair in touch by a human reproductive law which it believed indicated that any meeting would require the child's consent, which he could not grant until he was 18.

A Reproductive Technology Council publication states there is nothing in the WA Act which would rule out access to identifying information or contact between the parties if they all consented.

Attorney-General Jim McGinty said last night he would seek urgent advice from the State Solicitor on how the law could be circumvented to allow the women to meet.

Cyntra, who is now 28, broke into tears and called the clinic after reading a report in The West Australian in July 2001 about a couple who were so desperate to find a donor after several miscarriages, they advertised in the newspaper.

She enrolled to donate her eggs the next day and endured a painful month-long hormone and harvesting procedure.

"Helping someone do something they had tried so hard to do and may have never achieved was probably the best thing I've done in my life," Cyntra said. "It would mean a great deal to me to meet the people I've helped and to see their child."

Cyntra, who has the boy's playgroup drawings displayed in her house, also rejected suggestions that she may be tempted to make a legal claim to the child. "I am certain in my mind I will never have any claim to the child, but I'd love to see if he looks like any of my family. I'd risk fines and jail to meet him and have a bit of closure, but it's just been so frustrating."

Health Department reproductive technology policy officer Sandy Webb said the child was the most vulnerable person involved in the IVF battle and his interests came first.

Mr McGinty said he supported the desires of both parties in their efforts to meet.

Meanwhile, Cyntra is left with her letters of hope and the frustrating habit of wondering if every young boy she walks past is the one.