Giving Birth To Your Biological Half Sibling

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MrsSpringsteen

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I would say that is a mother's love and thinking about future possibilities-even though you could live perfectly well physically (emotionally very tough if you want them and can't have them, but of course there's always adoption which is wonderful) without having children, but you can't when you need certain organs. I don't know what to think about the ethical questions, this is a whole new question.

Mom freezes eggs so daughter can have child

Reuters
Updated: April 19, 2007

TORONTO - A Montreal woman has frozen her eggs so they can be used by her 7-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-sibling. 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.

First mother-to-daughter donation
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.
 
I don't think its disturbing, she has the choice and can choose if she wants the eggs or not, but at least her mother is forethoughtful enough to do something 'just in case'

The child may be her half sister, but it will also have her biological genes, and look like her, and its a wonderful choice for this daughter to make when she's ready to have children
 
I agree with Amy. I don't have an ethical problem with this. If the daughter wants to use them, she can, if she doesn't, she doesn't have to. One good point I can think of right off is the medical history will be known -- something you can't be completely sure of with donated eggs, even if the donor is asked.
 
trevster2k said:
I got no problem with this.

Me neither.

I have a friend whose sister can't have a biological child. She'll donate her egg to her sister. This happens a lot - what's the problem?
 
i had to delete my entire post! . Mistake rant............I misread the article.......I thought the mum wanted her daughter to have her (the mums!) daughter....if you get my drift.....anyhoo......i'm completely buggered and i'm off to bed.....:lol:
 
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anitram said:


Me neither.

I have a friend whose sister can't have a biological child. She'll donate her egg to her sister. This happens a lot - what's the problem?

Yeah, how is this any different than men making "donations" to a sperm bank, or a couple receiving sperm form the sperm bank?

I read through it trying to find out what The Big Deal was, and didn't see it...
 
I think its pretty wonderful of the mum to think so far ahead and to do such a great thing for her daughter.
And the daughter always has the option of not using the eggs if she doesn't want to.. I really don't see the problem
 
Kiki said:
wow.......thats just disturbing on so many levels.

Can you imagine trying to explain that to your kid when they're older? "Honey, mommy's also your 1/2 sister". So....do you punish the kid or cover for them when they do something wrong?!

What exactly is so disturbing about this? Women use donated eggs and sperm all the time, sometimes from family members. I don't know why using your mother's eggs would be any different than using your sister's.

And instead of going into a whole confusing explanation with the child, why not just say "Grandma did a really amazing thing and donated her eggs so I could have you" :shrug:
 
I have kind of a technical question. When you donate eggs or sperm doesn´t the offspring then genetically inherit the donors physical traits and whatnot? So it´s still technically the donors child except there was a different carrier, right? I´m confused. :huh:
 
I think it could make for an interesting custody battle if it came to it. The egg mother is the biological mother and could she sue for custody if she wanted to? Or if the child is mentally retarded could the mother going through the pregnancy force the biological mother to take the baby since genetically it's the egg donater's daughter.

It would be rather strange giving birth to your half sister, but that's just me.
 
BrownEyedBoy said:
I have kind of a technical question. When you donate eggs or sperm doesn´t the offspring then genetically inherit the donors physical traits and whatnot? So it´s still technically the donors child except there was a different carrier, right? I´m confused. :huh:

Correct, genetically this would not be the daughter's child. Thr daughter is basically functioning as a surrogate here.
 
randhail said:
I think it could make for an interesting custody battle if it came to it. The egg mother is the biological mother and could she sue for custody if she wanted to?

Why would you treat this differently than sperm donors? They don't have a right to sue for custody.
 
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