Woman gives birth to her own son’s IVF baby
Woman gives birth to her own son’s IVF baby
A mother has helped her own son become a father – by carrying his child as a surrogate.
In a procedure believed to be a world first, a fertility clinic arranged the woman’s pregnancy using a donor egg and her son’s sperm.
She offered to have the baby – with her husband’s consent – after plans by their son to have an IVF child with another female relative collapsed.
The extraordinary arrangement emerged when a High Court judge ruled that the son can now adopt the baby boy and become his legal father – even though in the eyes of the law he is also the infant’s brother.
However, the move was met with howls of protest by critics, who described the procedure as ‘dubious’ and called for urgent reforms to prevent abuses of fertility law.
Mrs Justice Theis, who did not identify the family, the clinic or the local authority in the area where they live, said: ‘The arrangement the parties entered into is not one, as far as I am aware, that either this court or the clinic have previously encountered and although highly unusual is entirely lawful under the relevant statutory provisions.’
The father, who is in his mid-20s and lives alone, has wanted to be a parent ‘for some considerable time’ but waited until he had a settled job and home so he could provide ‘the care a child would need’.
