Mother Donates Eggs To Seven Year Old Daughter

Melanie Boivin a 35 year old lawyer from Montreal, Canada decided on this unusual step because she figured that by the time her daughter, Flavie, reached child bearing age the waiting lists for donor eggs will have increased dramatically.

Before agreeing to transplant the eggs from mother to daughter fertility specialists at the university referred the case to an ethics committee, which approved the procedure. However in later life if Flavie wishes to use the eggs, she will need to seek approval from another ethics committee before her treatment can go ahead.

Although genetic, Turner syndrome is not usually directly inherited, Flavie's younger sister Clara is not affected.

Mrs Boivin said that she had been considering the donation for a whole year, had researched it on the internet and discussed it with her partner. Both Mrs Boivin and her partner expressed concerns about the ethical questions involved.

"What made us sure was the fact that I was there to help my daughter. If I could do anything in my power to help her I had to do it and because of my age I had to do it now.

"I told myself if she had needed another organ like a kidney I would volunteer without any hesitation and it is the same kind of thought process for this."

Melanie said her daughter would be the real mother as she would be caring for the child.

"I do not want to oblige her to use the eggs; I want to give her the option."

Should Flavie decide to use her mother's eggs, her chances of giving birth will be good, says Seang Lin Tan, the fertility expert at McGill University in Montreal who treated Boivin. Turner syndrome does not affect the womb, meaning that it should be possible to implant an embryo after in vitro fertilization (IVF)."The chances of carrying a baby to term are very high," Tan says, adding that doctors should screen the embryos for the Turner syndrome abnormality.

Professor Tan said they had asked for the advice of an independent ethics committee.

"The ethic committee agreed to it because the mother giving to a daughter is out of love and it is up to the daughter and partner in future years to decide whether to use the eggs or not.

But ethicist Margaret Somerville said reproductive technologies fail to take into account the consent of the unborn child.

Children of anonymous donors who don't know their biological parents have condemned the process, Somerville noted.

"We have to think about what we are doing when we are running around nature. Giving birth to your own sister completely screws up the normal transition of life," Somerville said

But University of Toronto philosophy professor and moral scholar Wayne Sumner disagreed.

"When it comes to donor gametes, it is "irrelevant" who donates the eggs", Sumner said. "I don't see it as all that significant - the scrambling of generations. I don't have concerns about whether it's natural or normal".

"It's a little odd for (Boivin), who will have both a child and a grandchild simultaneously, but people wrap their heads around these things."

This article was brought to you courtesy of Babies Worldwide an online resource for new and expectant mothers. Babies Worldwide is part of worldwide-infomedia services

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InVitro Fertilization and Embryo Transfer (IVF/ET) Program
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Center for Fertility and In Vitro Fertilization
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UCSF Center for Reproductive Health

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Colorado Center for Reproductive Medicine
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Yale University Fertility Center

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South Florida Institute for Reproductive Medicine
Three offices in South Florida
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