What are the legal issues for young girls undergoing fertility preservation?

Girls, the problem is a little bit more complicated. For the procedures that require, again, physical maturity and pubescence such as, for example, emergency IVF, those problems are again alleviated because again, the girl can sort of speak her own mind. But even in those cases, the procedures are much more invasive. They involve, for example, in the case of emergency IVF, they involve hormonal treatment which can be detrimental. There are—they have—exceedingly rare, but there have been reports that hormonal treatment itself causes severe problems up to and including death. I mean they’re very rare but still, and so the questions. Well, can parents consent and can they weigh those harms and benefits?

And, of course, the problem is even more complicated for females who are under some sort of age of comprehension, for example, five or six. And their parents wish to have them to excise their ovary and store the whole ovary, which, again, it's minor surgery but still it’s a surgery with obvious risks. And, of course, it takes out a functioning organ out of a non-consenting young female, an organ that is very important for reproduction in the future. And it’s all made even more complicated by the fact that right as of today, at least that particular procedure has not been proven to work in humans. There’s been good experiments in mice, but there’s not been a single child born just yet from a process where the entire ovary is excised, stored, then eggs are matured in vitro, then fertilized, then implanted back on the female.

So, these are the questions that at least parents have to ask themselves. The doctors who are treating have to ask themselves if they’re willing to go through that procedure and potentially expose themselves to future claims. Not that I necessarily expect to be much, but those are sort of the questions that both sides have to seek legal advice on. But also, of course, parents have to realize that (a) there are complications especially with women, and that (b) a lot of these procedures are really very much in the very early stages. And while it may give some hope right now, there’s really no quantifiable level of success just yet. And so, they at least must be made aware of what exactly they are signing up for.