My dying daughter told me: I want you to be the one to carry my babies

Woman, 59, in bid for medical f irst using cancer victim’s frozen eggs

A WOMAN is staging a desperate legal bid to become pregnant with her own grandchild – using her dead daughter’s eggs.

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 UK couple’s only chance to become a 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 esti-

‘I have grave concerns – it’s rather disturbing’

mated 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 58year-old husband say they are determined to honour their daughter’s wishes and the case is now set to be decided by a judge.

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.

The UK’s 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.

However, politicians and campaigners criticised plans to bring a baby into the world long after the biological mother had died.

Conservative MP David Davies, said: ‘I can’t understand why anyone would want to do that. I would have grave concerns about any permission being granted by the HFEA or the courts.’

Josephine Quintavalle, from campaign group Comment on Reproductive Ethics, acknowledged there would be sympathy for the mother’s loss but said it would be ‘ impossible not to feel very uncomfortable’ if the procedure was allowed to go ahead. She said of the potential grandmother: ‘Her daughter is irreplaceable and should be mourned as such.’

But Annie Casserley, 62, who acted as a surrogate for her own daughter, said: ‘If that was her daughter’s wish and she wants to honour that wish, then it’s absolutely her choice.’

Women who have gone through the menopause are still able to bear children using donor eggs and sperm. However, obstetricians say the risks, such as miscarriage, are greater. The full details of the controversial case are revealed in minutes of the HFEA’s Statutory Approvals Committee, which has so far rejected three attempts by the couple to secure permission to use the eggs.

The MoS is aware of the family’s identity, but will respect their wish to remain anonymous.

Last night, lawyers for the family declined to comment on the case.

The documents reveal the couple’s daughter was diagnosed with bowel cancer at 23 and chose to freeze and store three of her eggs at IVF Hammersmith in London in 2008. She completed a form that gave consent for the eggs to be stored for use after her death, but crucially, failed to fill in a separate form that indicated how she wished the eggs to be used.

This technically meant her consent became invalid.

She died in 2011 without leaving further instructions. She was single. The minutes reveal the ‘strongest and only evidence’ of her wishes was a reported conver- sation with her mother while she was in hospital in 2010. The young woman is said to have asked an unnamed doctor whether someone with a stoma such as herself could carry a child. The doctor confirmed it was possible.

But, the mother says, it was then agreed that if her daughter could not carry a child ‘I would do it for her’. The minutes say the young woman wanted her mother to ‘carry her babies… in the context of her not expecting to leave hospital alive’.

Generally, fertility clinics will not treat women over 50 because of the limited chances of success and the extra risks involved. But the couple have now been approved for treatment by a US clinic, New York Fertility Services.

The HFEA said the case would now proceed to judicial review. It will be heard in the Administrative Court, a division of the High Court, at a date to be set.

If this final legal bid fails, the eggs will be destroyed in February 2018, 10 years after they were stored.

Professor Simon Fishel, managing director of Care Fertility clinics, said: ‘One argument is this: if the family feels it’s right for them, whose right is it to interfere?’

Woman’s age not a factor for regulators