Is there an issue here?

[Rummy]

Just read an article over at Reuters Oddly Enough, I'll quote it here in case the article disappears.

Canada mom freezes eggs so daughter can have child

Thu Apr 19, 2007 7:35PM BST

 

TORONTO (Reuters) - A Montreal woman has frozen her eggs so they can be used by her seven-year-old daughter, who cannot have children because of a genetic condition.

 

Doctors at McGill University Reproductive Centre in Montreal, which has pioneered a freezing program for cancer patients and those who want to delay childbearing, say the decision by 36-year-old Melanie Boivin is unprecedented in North America and raises ethical questions.

 

If the girl chooses to become pregnant using her mother's eggs, she will be giving birth to her biological half-sister. Boivin will then become a mother and a grandmother.

 

"She is donating her eggs to help her daughter to have children. It's mother's love," Seang Lin Tan, director of the McGill Reproductive Centre and a prominent expert on infertility treatments, said in an interview on Wednesday night.

 

"It's like donating a kidney to your own child, nobody will have problem with that," he said.

 

While there are about 60 cases of women freezing their eggs in North America, mother-to-daughter donation is the first, Tan said. The case has been reviewed and endorsed by the ethical committee of the McGill University Health Centre, he said.

 

Tan said Boivin decided to donate her eggs after finding out that her daughter is sterile because she has Turner's syndrome, in which one of the two X chromosomes normally found in females is missing or incomplete.

 

The most common characteristics of Turner's syndrome, which occurs in one out of 2,500 female births, include short stature and lack of ovarian development.

 

"Parents are there to help (their) children, and if she would have needed anything else, an organ, a kidney, I would give it to her without hesitation," Boivin told the Globe and Mail newspaper.

 

She has since declined to be interviewed, saying the discussion has caused some problems for her daughter.

 

Boivin's eggs will be frozen for 20 to 25 years, using a freezing method called vitrification that was developed by Tan's team, and which has drastically increased the egg survival rate.

 

The frozen eggs are stored in a protective device until they are ready for use. Pregnancy rates with vitrification eggs are almost the same as with fresh eggs, Tan said.

 

It will be up to Boivin's daughter to decide whether she wants to use the frozen eggs, he said.

 

"It takes time for people to get used to the idea," Tan said, adding that many people disapproved of test-tube baby technology 30 years ago.

 

 

Anyway, it made me think, is there *really* an issue here, or is it just our human thinking getting in the way?

[Kurtle Squad]

So what if she's giving birth to a 1/2 sister or whatever???

It's not as if it's through inbreeding.

[The Bard]

She's just doing it out of the kindness of her heart, the girls free to not accept the help if she doesn't want it, or if she feels awkward about it, she can use donor eggs from elsewhere.

[gmac]

the only thing would be that when the theoretical child from these eggs grows up and finds out their "mum" is their sister and granny is their mum :p

[Gaijin von Snikbah]

Perhaps it will be an issue for the children... You know, having 2 moms sort of.

[Shino]

Morally it sounds kinda good, biologically its a disaster, nice way to circumvent evolution.

 

Perhaps it will be an issue for the children... You know, having 2 moms sort of.

 

Substeinar?!

[Gaijin von Snikbah]

Substeinar?!

 

What is a substeinar?

[Shino]

What is a substeinar?

 

WHO ARE YOU?!!!

[killthenet]

I don't see anything wrong with it. It's a good solution because her Mother's gene's are obviously vaguely similar to her's, so there would still be some physical similarities between mother and baby in the future. And also the kid will grow up to believe that the woman who birthed it is it's mother, and due to physical similarities there would never be any need to tell the child otherwise.

 

It's a win-win situation, y'hear?

 

Sorry, i'm tired. So very tired.

[Shorty]

I think it's kind of weird. If someone fully explains the situation to the daughter, I can't see her wanting to go ahead with it over other options. If I had the choice, I wouldn't want to have my Mother's children :/

[Cube]

Sounds much better than using donor eggs form elsewhere. At least she'll have some of her DNA in the child she may have if she wants to.

[Jimbob]

Sounds like there is no real problem with this, if the mother wishes to donate eggs for her daughter then thats her decision and it is up to the daughter to decide if she wants to use her mothers eggs or use someone elses eggs to have a child. At least if she uses her mothers eggs then there is more of a chance of having a child that looks a bit like her and the father of the child.

[Konfucius]

I think it's better than getting some random egg, at least the genes and looks the kid will have are similar to her own.

 

...biologically its a disaster, nice way to circumvent evolution.

 

Very true.

Besides there are enough children who wait for an adoption and realistically it won't be her child anyways whether she gives birth to it or not.

[shaq365]

And also the kid will grow up to believe that the woman who birthed it is it's mother, and due to physical similarities there would never be any need to tell the child otherwise.

 

Unless the kid looks up their name in the internet...or whatever is around in the future.

[Rummy]

Think about if you were infertile, and so your girlfriend/wife/partner was to impregnated(without the sex) by your father's sperm? Wouldn't you just think that really weird? For any girls out there, imagine that the other way round, like as if you was in the daughter's situation.

Of course, as you have all pointed out, she's only like 7 and she will have the choice when she's older, but I just think it'd be weird to use your mother's eggs!

[Kurtle Squad]

Morally it sounds kinda good, biologically its a disaster, nice way to circumvent evolution.

Well it doesn't matter since she can't have kids, so it's not as if she could pass on her wierdness of not having kids anyway...

[DCK]

Doesn't seem to be an issue but I do think it's quite weird; especially if the daughter's really going to have kids with that. Your mom is your half sister? Oh well. Hope this won't cause Fox Network to explode. Again.