A MUM has donated her eggs to her own daughter in an IVF world first that means the girl can one day give birth to her half-sister or brother. It follows her mother’s controversial decision to donate eggs to her.
Melanie Boivin, 35, asked doctors to freeze her eggs after learning that Flavie, seven, had a rare genetic condition that makes women infertile.
Flavie would be both mum and half-sister to her tot — and Melanie would have a grandchild who is genetically her daughter or son.
Medics at the McGill Reproductive Centre in the family’s home city of Montreal, Canada, harvested and froze 21 eggs.
When Flavie grows up, they will be fertilised with her future partner’s sperm, then implanted in her.
Melanie said: “I’ll do anything to help her. Because of my age I had to do it now.
“She would be the real mother as she would be caring for the child.”
But she admitted: “It is very difficult to imagine how I’ll react when the situation arises.”
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Hope ... Prof Tan
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Professor Seang Tan, of the McGill Centre, said: “We know that children have been born from embryos frozen for more than ten years so we hope it does not matter how long these eggs are frozen for.”
Lawyer Melanie and partner Martin Cote, 35, a financial analyst, have two other healthy kids — but Flavie was born with rare Turner Syndrome.
Her mother’s gift — revealed yesterday at a meeting of the European Society for Human Reproduction and Embryology in Lyon, France — was branded “unethical” by some British campaigners.
Josephine Quintavalle, of the group Comment on Reproductive Ethics, said: “This is very worrying. The parenting situation would be difficult.”
Arlene Smyth, of the British Turner Support Society said: “It is a wonderful development, and gives hope for the future but without dealing with the moral and legal implications it might lead to greater stress in the long run.”
The HFEA said it is almost impossible for it to happen in Britain due to strict rules on egg donation and storage.Eggs are usually just stored for up to five years.
An extended storage licence of 10 years is only granted if the eggs are a woman’s own.
