Photo by
Yoav Dudkevitch/TPS-IL on 29 November, 2023
Supreme Court Rules Baby Sophie to Stay With Foster Parents in Embryo Mix-Up Case
Jerusalem, 11 May, 2025 (TPS-IL) -- Israel’s Supreme Court ruled on Sunday that Baby Sophie, the now-two-year-old center of a high-profile embryo mix-up, will remain with her foster parents.
The five-justice panel unanimously rejected an appeal filed by her biological parents, upholding a lower court’s decision.
The justices emphasized the importance of Sophia’s emotional and physical stability, concluding that she should stay with the couple who raised her since birth. However, they also ordered the establishment of “an appropriate framework” to maintain a relationship between Sophie and her genetic parents, aiming to balance her best interests with her biological ties.
In 2022, Israel was rocked by the news that an embryo was mistakenly implanted in the wrong woman at Rishon Lezion’s Assuta Medical Center.
The mishap was discovered when doctors detected a heart defect in the fetus during the third trimester. Subsequent testing revealed that neither the woman who was carrying the fetus nor her partner were the biological parents.
Baby Sophie’s biological parents were eventually confirmed, sparking a custody battle. The Rishon LeZion Family Court ruled in favor of the biological parents in November.
But the District Court of Lod reversed the lower court’s decision in March, giving custody to the foster parents. The ruling said that “the principle of certainty should be preferred” in light of the possible human errors associated with in vitro fertilization. Giving custody to the birth mother “will provide certainty regarding the results of future errors that may occur in artificial reproduction procedures, and will not require waiting and searching for a genetic connection upon the discovery of the error.”
The ruling also awarded Sophie’s biological parents regular visitation rights.
In mid-November, Israel’s State Comptroller released a scathing report on IVF clinics, raising issues of patient safety, inadequate oversight, and staffing shortages.
Israel, which leads the world in fertility treatments per capita, has seen a 60% increase in IVF cycles over the past decade, reaching 61,000 treatments in 2021. However, the Ministry of Health failed to adequately prepare for this surge, the Comptroller reported.
Also in November, Israel’s Health Ministry scaled back IVF activities at Tel Aviv’s Assuta Ramat HaHayal Hospital after an investigation found critical professional and systemic failures jeopardizing patient safety. That investigation was initiated following two major incidents in 2023.
One involved two children from the same couple who were not genetically related to the father, raising questions about whose sperm had fertilized the eggs. The second incident involved the total degeneration of patients’ eggs due to dehydration during storage. This occurred twice within three months, forcing the affected women to undergo repeated egg retrieval procedures.
Israel offers some of the most generous public funding for IVF in the world. The government subsidizes unlimited IVF treatments for women up to the age of 45, as long as they are trying to have their first two children.
