A British woman is staging a desperate legal bid to become pregnant with her own grandchild – using her dead daughter’s eggs. The Daily Mail reports that in the first case of its kind in the world, the woman, 59, and her husband will claim it was their daughter’s dying wish that her eggs be fertilised by donor sperm and implanted into her own mother’s womb. It would be the couple’s only chance to become grandparents after their daughter, an only child, died of bowel cancer four years ago while still in her 20s.
She chose to freeze her eggs in the hope that she could have children in the future, but tragically lost her battle with the disease. No UK-based clinic has agreed to treat the mother, who is now hoping to export the eggs to New York, where a clinic is lined up to provide fertility treatment at an estimated cost of up to £60,000.
At her age, the woman’s chances of becoming pregnant using the eggs are small. There are potentially large risks to her health, and the health of the unborn child, if fertility treatment succeeds. However, the woman and her 58-year-old husband say they are determined to honour their daughter’s wishes and the case is now set to be decided by a judge.
The Human Fertility and Embryology Authority (HFEA) has already refused the couple’s application to export their daughter’s frozen eggs to America, on the grounds that she did not give clear written consent. But her parents are now preparing to challenge the ruling in the High Court. They claim their daughter told them shortly before her death that this was what she wanted.
If successful, the woman would be the first in the world to give birth to a baby using eggs from her dead daughter, experts believe.
[link url="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2963277/British-mum-59-bid-world-medical-ll-birth-baby-dead-daughter.html"]Full Daily Mail report[/link]