Grandmother To Give Birth To Her Grandchild?

A woman has launched a legal battle to obtain her dead daughter’s frozen egg so that she can become pregnant with her own child.

15:49 08 May 2015

In a case that is believed to be the first in the world, a woman has launched a legal battle to gain possession of her dead daughter’s frozen eggs so she can give birth to her grandchild. The woman, 59, was previously denied by an independent regulator to take the eggs to a fertility treatment clinic in the US. 

 

The woman and her 58-year-old husband said they are only trying to carry out their daughter’s dying wish. Their daughter, who was the only child, died in her late 20s due to bowel cancer. She had her eggs frozen following the diagnosis hoping she will have children in the future. 

 

Fertility expert Dr Mohammed Taranissi, who runs the ARGC clinic in London, said: "I have never heard of a surrogacy case involving a mother and her dead daughter's eggs.

 

"It's fair to say that this may be a world first."

 

The Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA) statutory approvals committee refused to issue a “special direction” to have the eggs sent to the US saying that there was insufficient evidence to show that the daughter wanted her mother to use donor sperm to carry her child.