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Wednesday, 20 June, 2001, 15:33 GMT 16:33 UK

Brother fathered 62-year-old's baby



By James Coomarasamy in Paris

A 62-year-old woman who last month became France's oldest mother has revealed that her brother was the biological father of the baby.

The woman, a retired teacher from Frejus in the south of France, conceived the child in the United States under an artificial insemination procedure that is illegal in her home country for women who have been through the menopause.

Fertility treatment
But this already controversial birth is now posing an unprecedented ethical problem after the 62-year-old, identified simply as "Jeanine", revealed in an interview that her brother Robert is the child's biological father.

The details of this case have shocked French people.

Doctor tricked

Robert's sperm was used to fertilise two eggs donated by a Californian woman: one was brought to term by "Jeanine", the other by the donor.

The two babies were born on either side of the Atlantic within a few days of each other and are now being brought up by "Jeanine" and Robert in the home they share with their 80-year-old mother.

In her interview, "Jeanine" admits that she tricked the doctors in Los Angeles into believing that she and her brother were married.

The man who performed the fertilisation treatment has expressed his disappointment at the news and says that in future he will demand to see couples' marriage certificates.


Related to this story:
IVF (31 Mar 99 | Medical notes) Aspirin 'doubles IVF pregnancy chances' (27 Apr 99 | Health) Fertilise now, get pregnant later (18 Aug 98 | Health) IVF: the drawbacks (31 Mar 99 | Health)


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