Stay up to date with notifications from The Independent

Notifications can be managed in browser preferences.

French brother and sister in test-tube babies inquiry

John Lichfield
Thursday 21 June 2001 00:00 BST
Comments

A Frenchwoman of 62 who gave birth to a test-tube baby after treatment in the United States admitted yesterday that her handicapped brother, aged 52, was the biological father of the child.

The case, which gives rise to a maze of moral and family complexities, has caused consternation in France, where it is illegal for older women to become pregnant in this way.

The American doctor who performed the operations, using an egg donated by another woman, said yesterday that he had been duped by the pair. Dr Vicken Sahakian said that he had been led to believe they were man and wife.

"I am very disappointed by their lies. If I had known, I would never have performed these fertility operations," he said.

The woman, identified only as Jeanine, a retired teacher, living in Fréjus, on the Mediterranean coast, told the newspaper Le Parisien: "I have committed no moral fault and I have no problem with my conscience ... I may be 62 and my brother 52 but we are better equipped to raise children than a couple of drug addicts. Why judge us and not them?"

The couple have not committed incest because Jeanine is not the biological mother of her child: she carried to term a donor egg, fertilised by her brother, Robert.

Brother and sister, who live with their 80-year-old mother, have, in fact, two babies, who are full brother and sister, but carried by different mothers. Jeanine gave birth on 14 May to a baby boy. Eight days earlier, the mother who donated her egg gave birth to a girl, whose father is also Jeanine's brother. Both babies are living with Jeanine and Robert in Fréjus. They paid £56,000 to Dr Sahakian for each child.

"Robert and I are healthy in body and mind," Jeanine told the newspaper.

"We wouldn't have had these children if it was not a joy for us. I cuddle these babies. I get up three times a night like any other mother. I could no longger continue my genetic line because of my age, so I wanted to continue his, so that our lineage would be preserved. He helped me to become a mother... and I helped him to find a mother to carry a baby so that he could have his first child, a little girl."

Robert is mentally handicapped and has a crippled face after a failed suicide attempt.

The French authorities have started legal and social investigations of the family. They are considering whether or not to prosecute Jeanine for breaking a French law that bans fertility operations permitting post-menopausal women to give birth, even though she received the treatment in Los Angeles.

They are also investigating the social background of the family to judge whether they are considered suitable to raise small children.

Join our commenting forum

Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies

Comments

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged inPlease refresh your browser to be logged in