Test-tube 'incest' sparks French outrage

Retired teacher's pregnancy has rocked France

By Hugh Schofield in Paris

It is going to be very confusing.

Their uncle is also their father. They are twins, except they have two different mothers. And their parents are now a brother and sister couple - aged 52 and 62 - with a history of mutual hatred.

The story of how Benoit-David and Marie-Cecile S were conceived is one of the most extraordinary to have emerged since science made this kind of thing possible.

It has provoked popular outrage in France, and raised profound ethical questions about the relation between the possible and the permissible.

At this point across France, foreheads are being slapped and wise men are preparing their highly critical articles for the press

Now it is also the object of an investigation by the social services and - possibly - a criminal prosecution.

As more of its details emerge, what initially seemed like a straightforward case of ageing-woman-seeks-baby has turned into a deeply disturbing modern saga.

Initial reaction was strong enough when the news first emerged two weeks ago that a 62-year-old woman from the southern town of Draguignan - Jeanine S - had given birth to a baby boy after receiving fertilisation treatment in California.

The babies are being brought up by the brother-and-sister couple

Egg implantation in post-menopausal women is illegal in France - which was why the mother had gone to the United States.

Most people felt uneasy about the birth, but then she was not the first sexagenarian to have a baby, so they left it at that.

But then came this week's bombshells. First: there were in fact two babies. The other - a girl - had been brought to term in the womb of the American egg-donor and born a few days after Benoit. She had then been collected and brought back to France.

Shock truth

And then the shocker: the father of both children was none other than Jeanine's younger brother Robert.

He had provided the sperm that fertilised the donor's egg that was then implanted in his sister's uterus. She had given birth to her brother's child.

The babies were conceived in the US to avoid stricter French laws

In interviews, Jeanine explained how the doctor in Los Angeles had never sought to question their relationship. Because they both bore the same name, he assumed they were man and wife. And no, it was not incest, she said. They had simply helped each other to become parents.

At this point across France, foreheads are being slapped and wise men are preparing their highly critical articles for the press. But there is more.

'Peculiar family'

The family into which the children have been born is - to say the least - peculiar. Jeanine and Robert have a relationship that has descended in the past into bitterness and violence.

Without a child, (the inheritance) would go to the state or - even worse - to distant relations

In the large house that they share with their 80-year-old mother, the police have been called several times after ferocious domestic rows in which Jeanine said she was beaten by her brother. "The family members harbour a wild hatred for each other, and they use the police to settle their affairs," an official report said in 1993.

In 1995, things deteriorated further. Cast out of the house and living in a caravan, Robert - a firearms enthusiast - tried to kill himself with a shotgun. His life was saved by the emergency services, but he is now nearly blind and his face is badly disfigured.

Inheritance

And what prompted the reconciliation and the desire to bring up two babies together?

According to local people, it was to save the family inheritance, which consists of a number of properties in the area. Without a child, it would go to the state or - even worse - to distant relations.

The doctor who treated them thought they were married

"She had been counting on her brother to have a family. But her hopes were dashed after his 'accident.' No woman would have him now. So she moved heaven and earth to fulfil her plan," one neighbour told Le Figaro magazine.

Two questions are being asked in France.

One, is this the kind of environment in which any child should be brought up?

Two, is not this the inevitable result when science and money find themselves unfettered by proper ethically-based controls?