Professor John Harris of the University of Manchester told the BBC in September 2002: If the woman (Natallie Evans) succeeds in this case then the whole basis upon which the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority has operated thus far will be overturned.
[1]On 10 April 2007 Natallie Evans lost her final appeal at the Grand Chamber of the European Court of Human Rights.
On 12 November 2001 eleven of Evans' eggs were produced and fertilised using Johnston's sperm, resulting in six embryos which were frozen and placed in storage.
In the summer of 2002, Johnston, who lives in Cheltenham, wrote to the Bath, Somerset clinic storing the embryos and asked that they be destroyed.
Hadley from Baswich, Staffordshire, underwent IVF treatment but later got divorced from her husband Wayne, and wanted to use two of her stored embryos to try to get pregnant.
Although now outside the statutory five year legal limit for the retention before use of embryos, on 27 February 2005 the ECHR, to whom Evans had applied, requested, under Rule 39 (interim measures) of the Rules of Court, that the United Kingdom Government take appropriate measures to prevent the embryos being destroyed by the clinic before the Court had been able to examine the case.
Dr Wilks called for a change to the five year limit for embryos to be stored after one partner withdraws consent should be extended so there was less of a "ticking clock".
Ms Evans decided to appeal to the Grand Chamber of the European Court, but commented that she still wanted her ex-fiancé to change his mind to allow the embryos to be used.
[13] On 10 April 2007 the Grand Chamber of the ECHR ruled against Evans' appeal under three articles of the European Convention of Human Rights, which represented her last chance to save the embryos.