Monash IVF to pay financial settlement to families caught up in embryo bungles
Monash IVF transferred the wrong embryos to two women during separate incidents. (AAP image: James Ross)
In short:
Monash IVF has agreed to pay out families involved in two major embryo bungles at its Brisbane and Melbourne clinics.
One patient was wrongly implanted with another woman's embryo and another was transferred her own embryo instead of her partner's.
The fertility giant says it deeply regrets the two events and has taken steps to strengthen its culture and systems.
Fertility giant Monash IVF has agreed to pay financial settlements to families involved in two major bungles that saw two women transferred the wrong embryo.
In February 2025 the company became aware that one of its Brisbane clinic's patients had wrongly been implanted with another woman's embryo in 2023, and had later given birth to a baby who had no genetic links to her.
The company disclosed the incident to the stock market in April, apologised to the birth mother and the biological mother and commissioned an independent investigation.
The fertility company says it deeply regrets the mix-ups and has taken significant steps to strengthen its operations. (Supplied: Adobe)
Months later Monash IVF apologised after a second incident, this time at its Clayton clinic in Melbourne, where a woman's own embryo was incorrectly transferred to her, instead of her partner's embryo, contrary to their treatment plan.
Monash IVF apologised for the incident in June last year and launched an internal investigation. It also prompted the company to expand its investigation into the first error that affected the Brisbane patient.
In a statement today, Monash IVF spokesperson confirmed the company had settled or agreed to settle with the families affected at the Brisbane clinic and the Clayton clinic.
"We deeply regret the events from 2025 and have taken significant steps to strengthen our safety culture and enhance oversight across all sites,"the spokesperson said.
"We have also worked closely with the regulator to ensure our systems meet and, where possible, exceed required standards and community expectations.
"Patients can be confident that we have learned from these events and taken decisive steps to ensure our systems are as rigorous and robust as possible."
The spokesperson did not disclose the value of the settlements.
In its half-yearly results report to the Australian Stock Exchange in February this year, Monash IVF said its insurers had confirmed indemnity for the claims.
"Based on information available at the reporting date, and having regard to insurance coverage in place, the Directors do not expect any material exposures to arise in connection with these matters," the report said.
Following the incidents last year, the company committed to immediately implementing "additional verification processes and patient confirmation safeguards over and above normal practice and electronic witness systems".
Days after the company told the stock market about the second incident in June its chief executive officer Michael Knaap resigned.
The company commissioned an independent review into the embryo mix-ups, led by barrister Fiona McLeod, which found that the Brisbane incident was the result of human error, while the Melbourne incident resulted from a range of factors including human error, IT system limitations.
Last year, Monash IVF told the ASX it had already implemented many of the recommendations from the independent review as a result of its own internal investigation and committed to implementing the remainder of the review's recommendations.