The British High Court has ruled against an unnamed woman who wanted to create her own grandchild by using frozen eggs from her dead daughter. The court decided that it was not clear if her daughter had wanted the eggs to be used in this way and that therefore the woman's plans should not go forward.
The 59-year-old woman had wanted to send the frozen eggs to a fertility clinic in New York to be fertilized with donor sperm and then have the embryos transferred into her uterus.
Her daughter had been diagnosed with bowel cancer at the age of 23 and had chosen to freeze and store three of her eggs at a fertility clinic in London in 2008. She was single, but had hoped to be able to use the eggs in the future. Sadly, she died in 2011. When she had her eggs frozen, she had signed a form allowing the fertility clinic to use her eggs if she died, but she did not fill out a separate form detailing how the eggs were to be used.
The mother says that she and her daughter had an oral agreement that she would use the eggs to give birth to a grandchild. Because of her age, no fertility clinics in the United Kingdom were willing to create the embryos and implant them in her. When she found a fertility clinic in New York that was willing to make the attempt, the United Kingdom's Human Fertility and Embryology Authority refused the application to export the eggs because it said the intentions of the daughter were not clear. The High Court ruled in favor of the authority.
The risks of such a pregnancy for a 59-year-old woman include a higher risk of a miscarriage. However, women who are past menopause have successfully given birth with implanted embryos from donor eggs and sperm.