Woman to freeze her eggs for infertile daughter

A woman in Britain has decided to freeze her eggs so that her two-year-old daughter, who was born without ovaries, will be able to give birth in the future, even though it would be to her own sibling.

Penny Jarvis, 25, who has four other children, is determined to give her daughter Mackenzie Stephens the chance of motherhood through IVF, even though the ethical implications could be immense.

The test-tube baby would be a half-sibling of its birth mother as well as another child of its grandmother. The baby's father would be fertilising his mother-in-law's egg. In addition the baby's aunts and uncles would also be its half-brothers and sisters.

"You could look at it as her giving birth to her own brother or sister, but I choose not to see it like that," the Daily Mail quoted Jarvis as saying at the family home in Sheffield.u00a0

"It's a comfort to know that if she did have a child they would still have part of her own genetic make-up as well, so it would still be a part of her.

"Hopefully, it won't just be me doing it. I'd like to think her three sisters would offer their eggs too. But if they didn't, at least the option would be there for her.

"A few people have told me they think it's a bit sick, but on the whole people have been supportive.

"I couldn't imagine her growing up and watching all her sisters have children while she couldn't have any of her own," she stated.

Jarvis and her partner Karl Stephens, 42, are both full-time carers for Mackenzie, who was born with Turner Syndrome, a potentially devastating chromosomal abnormality.