Woman gives birth to her own grandson

I love these stories: This month a 61-year-old woman gave birth to her grandson via in vitro fertilization of her daughter’s fertilized egg. Gestational surrogate and grandmother, Kristine Casey, volunteered to help her daughter, Sara Connell, after years of failed pregnancy attempts. Sara and her husband had tried for years to have a baby and after two failed IVF pregnancies turned to mom for help. Sara said, “The idea of having a family member being open to doing this for us was so extraordinary.”

Kristine became pregnant with her grandchild at the second IVF attempt. The baby was born 39 weeks later via caesarean. The obstetrician, Dr. Susan Gerber said the surgery was straightforward, but “the emotional context of this delivery was so profound.”

The pregnancy occurred about ten years after Kristine went through menopause. Thanks to hormone treatments, the uterus can be prepared to carry a baby regardless of whether or not menopause has come and gone.

Naturally people everywhere get to react. Some are dismayed and believe it’s unethical for a woman to carry her own grandchild, allowing the child of her child to grow in her body. Or maybe they think there is something creepy about her giving birth to her son-in-law’s child as if there was some kind of hanky panky occurring in her uterus. I’m with Josephine Johnston, a bioethics researcher at The Hastings Centre, New York, who said: “It seems like an unquestionably loving and generous thing for a family member to do. It's one of those situations where outsiders might wonder if it's OK or healthy. But the experience of that child and his family will be that it's good.”

Source: New York Daily News, The Globe and Mail, Chicago Tribune