Woman in her 50s gives birth to own grandchild in Nagano

A woman in her 50s gave birth to her own grandchild last year in a host surrogacy on behalf of her daughter in her 30s, who had had her uterus removed for cancer and is unable to bear a child, the head of a maternity clinic in Nagano Prefecture announced Sunday.

Yahiro Netsu, director of the Suwa Maternity Clinic in Shimosuwa, Nagano Prefecture, told a news conference in Tokyo the woman gave birth in spring 2005 using an egg from her daughter and sperm from the daughter's husband, also in his 30s.

It is the first case in Japan that a woman has acted as a surrogate mother to give birth to her own grandchild. The baby was registered as a child of the surrogate mother and later adopted by the daughter and her husband, Netsu said.

The Suwa Maternity Clinic performed in vitro fertilization and implanted a fertilized egg into the woman's womb in 2004 and delivered the child in spring last year.

Netsu said the woman was given hormone injections before the implantation of the fertilized egg as she had reached menopause and had uterine atrophy.

The surrogate mother and the child, whose gender has not been released, are doing well, he said.

The woman visited the clinic about four years ago and made an offer to be a surrogate mother for her daughter, Netsu said, adding, his clinic conducted the surrogate birth after confirming that the woman had no health problems and obtaining approval from the in-house ethical committee.

Netsu said in the news conference that he also handled by the end of last year two other surrogate births, in which sisters became surrogate mothers.

He said he revealed the three cases at this time "to express anger and concerns" over the situation surrounding surrogate births in Japan after a local government in Tokyo appealed a Tokyo High Court ruling that allowed a Japanese couple to register twins born through an American surrogate mother to register as their own children.

About the benefit of grandmother acting as surrogate mother, Netsu said, "This is the most trouble-free way, I think, as we can avoid such a trouble that a surrogate mother refuses to hand over the child she delivered."

The three cases follow two other surrogate births announced by Netsu in the past, which included the nation's first such case announced in May 2001 involving a woman who gave birth to a child using the egg of her elder sister, who had had a uterus operation.

After the 2001 announcement, a council of the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare compiled a report in April 2003 suggesting a ban on surrogate births and punitive measures against violators, out of concerns that such births impose physical and mental strain on surrogate mothers and cause complications in family relationships.

The Japan Society of Obstetrics and Gynecology also stipulated in April 2003 guidelines banning surrogate births.