In Athens, Georgia, a 45 year old woman has given birth to a baby that is actually her grandson. This makes her the fourth grandmother in the United States to act as a surrogate for her grandchild. Interestingly, the process involved will not change the kinship terms in this family.
Krista Saxon and her husband wanted to become parents. In 2010, Krista’s gynecologist told her that she might not be able to become pregnant because she wasn’t producing enough eggs. The couple started to consider the possibility of recruiting a “gestational carrier” (which might also be called a surrogate).
The gestational carrier turned out to be Krista’s mother, 45 year old Angela Stockton. There is a difference between a surrogate and a gestational carrier. A surrogate provides the egg that creates the baby. A gestational carrier provides the place for an embryo to develop, but does not provide the egg. The egg came from Krista and was fertilized from sperm that came from her husband. As Angela Stockton explains it: “I’m just the oven”.
One of the remarkable things about this pregnancy is that Krista had to undergo a series of Lupron shots to help her to produce eggs. Only two were produced. One egg did not survive the retrieval process. The other was frozen, and later thawed, and transferred to Angela’s womb. She became pregnant.
Angela gave birth to her grandson Tucker Landry Saxon on October 6, 2012. The child was healthy. In genealogical terms, Angela is the grandmother to Tucker, not the mother, (despite giving birth to him). This is because Tucker’s biological parents are Angela’s daughter, Krista, and Krista’s husband. The kinship terms for this family remain exactly as one would expect them to.
That is not the case for another couple, in the Netherlands. The married couple wanted to have a child, but the husband was unable to produce sperm. The couple really wanted to have a child that was as close to them, biologically, as possible. The solution was to use a sperm donation that came from the husband’s father.
It is entirely possible to use sperm donation as a means of conceiving a child. Typically, the donator is someone unknown, and unrelated to, the woman who wants to become pregnant. In the situation with the couple in the Netherlands, a pregnancy resulted after the couple, and the husband’s father, went to a fertility clinic, who helped them.
This situation does change the kinship terms for the family. The baby’s biological mother is, obviously, his mother. The baby’s biological father, however, is technically his grandfather. This puts the woman’s husband in the unique position of raising his half-sibling as his child.
Image by Tommy Botello Photography on Flickr