Canadian Mother Freezes Own Eggs For Infertile Seven Year Old Daughter

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Main Category: Fertility
Also Included In: Pregnancy / Obstetrics;  Women's Health / Gynecology
Article Date: 05 Jul 2007 - 0:00 PDT

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A Canadian mother has had her eggs frozen for her daughter who is seven years old and likely to be infertile when she grows up. Should the girl use one of her mother's eggs to have a baby later in life she would effectively give birth to her own half brother or sister.

Professor Sean Lin Tan of McGill Reproductive Center, Montreal, who helped the Canadian mother, Melanie Boivin, to freeze her eggs for her daughter, gave details of the case at the 23rd annual meeting of the European Society of Human Reproduction and Embryology (ESHRE) in Lyon, France, earlier this week.

This is the first case he knows of where a mother has donated her eggs for her daughter to use, he said. Cases of sister to sister donation have been reported.

There has been a mixed reaction by various groups, some have expressed concern about the ethics of such work.

A spokeswoman for an ethics group told the BBC in the UK it was time we stopped thinking of women purely in terms of their reproductive potential and considered the psychological impact on children who may have identity problems, specifically what has been termed "genealogical bewilderment" by psychiatrists.

But Tan and his team called the Melanie Boivin's action an act of motherly love.

Others have compared the case to organ donation where a mother might donate a kidney to her sick child. Also unlike most infertile women who have to use donor eggs, in this case the daughter will have the option to use eggs from a known donor.

Prof Tan pointed out that Boivin is not forcing her daughter to use the eggs, but just making sure the option is there if she and a future partner want it.

Boivin's daughter, Flavie, has a rare chromosome condition called Turner's syndrome which affects 1 in 2,500 girls. Girls with the condition are born with few viable eggs of their own and reach the menopause very early in life.

Boivin who is 35 and a lawyer decided to investigate whether she could help her daughter and did her initial research on the internet. She eventually came across Professor Tan at McGill where he runs an egg freezing programme for patients with cancer and women who want to delay having children.

She was concerned that by the time Flavie was ready to have children, the waiting list for donor eggs would be even longer than it is now.

Boivin and her partner and father of Flavie, Martin Cote, discussed the idea. Cote is also 35 and a financial analyst.

Boivin said she was concerned about the medical and ethical issues, how much it would cost and the emotional impact it might have on her family. Boivin has two other children, a boy of 11 and a girl of 2 who does not have Turner's syndrome.

Reflecting on the ethical questions at first Boivin said she wondered whether she would view any future child of Flavie's born of her donated eggs as her own child or as a grandchild. But she was clear that Flavie would be the mother as she would be raising the child. She would therefore see the child as any other grandchild.

She said she was determined to help her daughter and that was the thing uppermost in her mind. If she could do anything in her power, she would. Also, because of her own age she couldn't wait any longer, the eggs would have to be harvested now.

She said she told herself if her daughter needed an organ, she would not hesitate to donate one, and this was the same situation, in her view.

Professor Tan said they consulted an independent ethics committee who agreed it was OK to do this because the mother was doing it out of love and the daughter and future partner will still have the option not to use the eggs.

He also said there were many women with Turner's syndrome who had used donated eggs to become pregnant. The condition does not usually affect the womb, only the eggs.

Click here for Turner Syndrome Support Society (UK).

Written by: Catharine Paddock
Writer: Medical News Today
Copyright: Medical News Today
Not to be reproduced without permission of Medical News Today

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