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A family involved in an embryo mix-up in which a Queensland woman gave birth to a stranger’s baby are suing Monash IVF for negligence.
The couple, who claim they are suffering severe psychological distress as a result of Monash IVF’s errors, are the latest to launch legal action against the fertility giant as a result of the Brisbane bungle.
The negligence claim, spelt out in a Supreme Court of Victoria writ, comes weeks after Monash IVF reached a multimillion-dollar confidential settlement with families involved in the Brisbane embryo mix-up, as well as another at its Clayton clinic in Melbourne.
That secret settlement led to Monash providing compensation to the birth mother and the biological mother in the Brisbane case.
The latest action involves a third family who were also closely involved in the Brisbane fiasco, but who Monash is yet to settle with.
This masthead has chosen not to identify the family involved out of respect for their privacy.
Monash IVF declined to speak about the negligence claim, with a spokesperson saying it would not comment on individual cases or matters before the courts.
The blunder, which Monash IVF later blamed on “human error”, meant the embryos of two different women were mixed up in a Brisbane lab, resulting in one woman giving birth to another woman’s biological child.
The mix-up was not discovered until February 2025 – about a year after the child was born – when the clinic’s staff noticed a woman had one embryo fewer than had been recorded and eventually realised it had been transferred to the wrong patient.
Monash IVF in March 2025 commissioned Fiona McLeod, SC, to conduct an independent investigation into the Brisbane error as its share price and reputation tumbled.
But within three months, the company had to expand the review after admitting a different woman had been implanted with the wrong embryo during a procedure at its Clayton clinic on June 5.
Some of that review’s findings were made public in August 2025, with Monash stating there were stark differences in the circumstances between the two cases, though human error was at the heart of both.
Monash IVF said the review found that the two incidents were unrelated, different in nature and had occurred years apart. It also found that both involved non-standard IVF treatment and circumstances that would not typically arise in most procedures.
The fertility giant last month confirmed it had reached agreements with two families involved the embryo bungle at its Brisbane clinic and at least one family involved in the mix-up at its Clayton clinic, which came to light within four months of each other last year.
Those settlements involved confidential payments worth several million dollars to the families affected, sources familiar with the agreements but who cannot speak publicly due to the confidential nature of the settlements revealed to this masthead.
As well as heartbreak for at least three families directly affected by Monash IVF’s errors, the repeated mix-ups distressed thousands of other women undergoing procedures and sent shockwaves through the fertility industry, forcing an urgent overhaul of Australia’s reproductive technology regulation.
It also tarnished the reputation of one of the world’s oldest and most respected fertility businesses, with Monash IVF’s share price initially plummeting and its chief executive officer Michael Knapp stepping down within a fortnight of the revelation of the Clayton error.
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