An attempt to amend the law to strengthen the rights of both partners during and after in-vitro fertilisation has been launched at Westminster.

It follows the case of Inverness woman Margaret Grant, 42, who found that her former husband had ordered the destruction of embryos after the couple split up while she was undergoing infertility treatment.

David Stewart, the MP for Inverness, Nairn and Lochaber, has introduced a 10 minute rule bill aimed at avoiding another similar case.

He wants the watchdog body, the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority, to change its code of conduct to prevent other women suffering the same experience as Mrs Grant.

David Stewart: Wants current law amended

The embryos had been created with eggs donated by another woman and fertilised using Mrs Grant's former husband Ian's sperm.

She was divorced from her husband in January 2001 but when she tried to discuss the IVF treatment, she was told the embryos had been destroyed at her ex-husband's request.

The MP said the news was given to Mrs Grant in a letter from a nurse manager at Aberdeen University's Assisted Reproduction Unit.

Mr Stewart said her experience had been "a disgrace" and a "very distressing situation".

He said the case was only the second of its kind that he was aware of in Scotland.

Mrs Grant had been receiving IVF treatment in Aberdeen and the five embryos had been created before the couple split up in 1998.

'Trauma and anxiety'

She said her one and only chance to have a family had been "snatched away" from her.

Mr Stewart said health authorities should be forced to inform women before the destruction of embryos created from donated eggs.

He said: "I want to ensure that no other women in Britain undergoing IVF treatment suffer the same trauma, the same anxiety and the same depression as my constituent.

"I am not suggesting any change in the current law ...where both the woman who provided the eggs and the man who provided fertilisation have to give effective consent for the embryos to remain in storage."