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MONTREAL - A mother has donated her egg cells to her daughter, who could as a result give birth to her half sister or brother if she decides in the future to become pregnant through IVF treatment.
The 7-year-old daughter has an inherited condition that makes her infertile so her mother decided to freeze her own eggs to give her daughter the opportunity of having a baby with similar genes. Melanie Boivin, 35, said yesterday that her daughter Flavie would be able to make up her own mind about whether or not to accept the frozen eggs once she is old enough to start a family.
It will be the world's first known mother-to-daughter egg donation and although it does not involve any new technology, the ethical issues are novel given that Flavie will in theory give birth to a half sibling.
Boivin, a lawyer, decided to make the offer of a donation because the only other options for Flavie would be to accept donated eggs from either a second-degree relative or a stranger.
"The role of a mother is essentially to help her children and if I could do anything in my power to help Flavie I had to do it, and because of my age I had to do it now," Boivin said. "I told myself if she had needed another organ like a kidney, I would volunteer without any hesitation, and it is the same kind of thought process for this.
"I do not want to oblige her to use the eggs, I want to give her the option. The thing I was most sad about her syndrome was her fertility issue. I was trying to open another door for her."
Flavie has Turner's syndrome, an inherited condition which has left her mildly impaired physically, with problems such as growth difficulties and heart defects, but mentally she is unaffected, Boivin said.
The eggs were collected and frozen by doctors at the McGill Reproductive Centre at the Royal Victoria Hospital in Montreal after Boivin underwent two cycles of ovarian stimulation and egg collection. A total of 21 mature eggs were frozen in liquid nitrogen.
Dr Seang Lin Tan, who led the team, presented details of the egg donation yesterday at the annual meeting of the European Society of Human Reproduction and Embryology in Lyon.
He said Boivin had made an "emotional" appeal to the hospital's ethics committee for the procedure to be allowed.
"It will still be up to her daughter whether she uses these eggs herself when she grows up, or whether she exchanges them for other eggs which come from a stranger," said Tan.
He acknowledged it was unclear how long the eggs could be frozen without damage. "No one knows about how long eggs can be frozen for. But we do know that children have been born from embryos frozen for more than 10 years."
Flavie's father, Martin Cote, 35, is a financial analyst. The couple also have two other children, Jeremie, 11, and Clara, two. Clara does not have Turner's and boys do not suffer from the condition.
- INDEPENDENT
