September 11, 2017.
This will be Portugal’s first Surrogacy (Surrogacy): a 50-year-old woman will bear and give birth to her grandson or granddaughter.
A first in Portugal
While in France, a large majority of the population remains firmly opposed to surrogacy, in Portugal, since July 2016, it is possible to have recourse to a surrogate mother in the event of sterility of the mother, linked to the absence or the dysfunction of the uterus for example, and without any financial compensation for the surrogate mother. It took a year for a surrogacy request to be authorized.
This request was made by a 30-year-old young woman who had her uterus removed as a result of endometriosis. And because her situation meets the criteria defined by law, the Portuguese council for medically assisted procreation has authorized her to use it. It is his mother who will bear the child. The biological mother will therefore also be the grandmother. The situation is unprecedented.
Unanimously approved surrogacy
Before the young woman’s uterus was removed, doctors had taken her oocytes and frozen them. Many requests were reportedly made to the Portuguese board of medically assisted reproduction, but it seems that this case is the only one that caught the attention of the members of the board, who approved it unanimously. However, it should be noted that surrogacy cases like this are quite rare.
For in vitro fertilization (IVF) to work, the surrogate mother must not be too old. The grandmother in question is 50 years old, which is quite young but still a high age for IVF. The risk of miscarriage remains high. The mother and grandmother will however have to sign a contract which will allow the two parties to come to an agreement in the event of a fetal malformation.
Marine Rondot
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