Woman gives birth to her own son's IVF baby

05.03.2015

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.

Such an 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.

But such 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.

The seven months old baby was born at full term and now lives with his father. However, the judge warned others not to embark on surrogacy deals without ‘comprehensive legal advice’ because the process is a ‘legal minefield’.

As Mrs Justice Theis told under the 2008 Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act, which governs surrogacy arrangements, the woman who carried the child is the legal mother. Her husband is the legal father because he consented to the pregnancy.

Rules stipulate that a surrogate mother must hand over a child to two parents – usually a couple ‘in an enduring family relationship’.

According to the law, it would be a crime to hand over the baby to the biological father alone.

Based on: dailymail.co.uk

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