Daughter to carry baby for her mum

BY LEIGH VAN DER STOEP

Last updated 05:00 28/06/2009

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A New Zealand woman has been given approval to act as a surrogate to her mother, meaning she will carry and give birth to her own sibling.

It is understood to be the first time the Ethics Committee for Assisted Reproductive Technology (Ecart) has approved an application for a daughter to carry her mother's child, although there have been approvals for women to carry their own grandchild.

The daughter who will act as a surrogate, or birth mother, is one of four siblings, and has two children of her own. Little more is known about the family except that Ecart had to consider many "complex psycho-social factors" in reaching its decision.

Its meeting in April also heard that the birth mother was young and unsure of whether her own family was complete, and had been in a relationship with her current partner for 18 months, with marriage being considered.

Fertility New Zealand chief executive Michelle Collyer said the daughter deserved praise for the decision to carry and deliver her mother's baby. "Certainly she's an admirable daughter for doing this."

The case also appeared to highlight the growing problem of "social infertility" as it could be assumed the older woman had waited till later in life to have another baby, possibly with a new partner, she said.

"I think we've really got to consider that this is the result of social infertility. I had a call from a woman the other day who was 50 and she'd just found her life partner, and she wanted to know if she could have children."

Applications for surrogacy and other fertility procedures in New Zealand need to be considered by the ethics committee in a process Collyer said was "beyond reproach".

"This is the first time I've heard of [mother-daughter surrogacy] happening this way around. Ecart would have ensured that all the t's were crossed and i's were dotted."

Since the committee was set up in 2005 it has heard 69 applications for surrogacy, which make up about 65% of the fertility treatment applications it has received.

Only two surrogacy applications have been declined and a further two were deferred, Ecart chair Kate Davenport said.

Collyer said the number of inquiries to her organisation about surrogacy was up 30-40% over the past 18 months because "people are looking for different [fertility] options".

"Several years ago, people were adopting and fostering. Now people are realising later in life they can't have children and by the time they've gone through a fertility treatment, they find they are too old for adopting or fostering. And financially, can they take on $3000 or $4000 for a round of IVF?

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"This is why surrogacy is not taboo; it's going to be a far more accepted way of people having children."

Collyer said in the past surrogacy was generally feared and portrayed negatively after high-profile cases overseas where birth mothers refused to give up babies.

But that is why in New Zealand a surrogate cannot receive payment other than to cover expenses for carrying someone else's baby. Collyer said Ecart also favoured inter-familial surrogacy.

"In New Zealand I think we've got a healthy attitude towards surrogacy and I can only applaud this daughter for her decision."

She said as surrogacy becomes more popular, it may be that some of the more rigorous "checks and balances" will be removed for straight-forward cases and Ecart would be required to consider only complex applications.

Infertility affects one in four New Zealanders.

Are you involved in a surrogate arrangement and want to tell us your story? Please contact

<a hrefmailto: leigh.stoep@star-times.co.nz>leigh.stoep@star-times.co.nz</a>

- © Fairfax NZ News