Keeping it in the family

An American lesbian has given birth to an IVF baby created from her brother's sperm and an egg from an anonymous donor. The 51 year old woman, who has not been named, has been in a stable relationship with another woman for 15 years and longed for a baby, but did not want to have a relationship, however temporary, with a man.

Her brother is married with two children of his own. He donated his sperm both to help his sister, and so that the child could have some familial genetic characteristics. He has signed a contract that will make him the legal guardian of the child in the event of his sister's death or a serious disability.

The first attempt at IVF failed, but on the second attempt the woman became pregnant and now the two women are raising the child. Unlike the case of Jeanine and Robert Salomone, this case was put before and approved by the ethics committee of the US fertility clinic where treatment took place. Mark Sauer of Columbia University commented in the journal Reproductive Biomedicine Online said that the committee gave its approval so that the woman could have a child 'of common ancestry to herself'. The doctors published details of the case in the hope that discussion about the treatment would be generated.

Robert Edwards, editor of the online journal, gave the decision his full approval. He said 'I have never seen such a procedure carried out before and I would be surprised to see such circumstances arising again. But this was a very moving case which will bring great happiness to the mother, brother and the child itself.' But Jack Scarisbrick, chairman of the pro-life charity LIFE, said that 'this kind of manufacturing of human life is completely unacceptable. Children are not commodities to be treated in this way.'