British mum, 59, wants to bear dead daughter's child

LONDON - A British mother wants to use her dead daughter's eggs to become pregnant with her grandchild.

The Sunday Mail, which reported the news yesterday, says the bid, if allowed, could make it a world first where a woman uses the eggs of a daughter who has died to become pregnant.

The 59-year-old woman wants her daughter's frozen eggs to be fertilised by donor sperm and implanted in her womb. She and her husband, 58, say it was the dying wish of their only child, who died from bowel cancer four years ago while still in her 20s. The Mail did not name the parents or the daughter.

However, fertility clinics in Britain have refused to treat the mother. Britain's Human Fertility and Embryology Authority has refused the couple's application to export the eggs to the United States, where a New York clinic has approved her for treatment for an estimated fee of £60,000 (S$126,000), on the grounds that there was no clear written consent from the daughter before she died. The parents will now challenge the ruling in court.

Dr Mohammed Taranissi, who runs the ARGC fertility clinic in London, told The Mail: "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."

There are only a handful of cases where a woman became a surrogate for her daughter's child. The first is South Africa's Pat Anthony, who in 1987 gave birth to triplets for her daughter who had undergone a hysterectomy.

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