MinkSoul
Monkey
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from CNN
PARIS, France -- A 62-year-old woman who gave birth last month says her brother is the father of the child, the Associated Press reports.
The unnamed French woman -- who is one of the oldest women ever to give birth -- says the pregnancy was achieved using her 52-year-old brother's sperm and a donor egg. She says a second baby fathered by her brother -- a girl -- was born to a surrogate mother.
According to a 1994 French law, only couples can have "medically assisted procreation."
The woman has been identified in French media only as "Jeanine," says she underwent treatment at a Los Angeles clinic and gave birth on May 14 in Frejus in southern France.
Christian Girard, prosecutor in nearby Draguignan, said officials were studying the baby's "family environment."
The woman, a retired teacher, told Le Parisien newspaper in an interview published on Wednesday that her child was conceived from her brother's sperm and an egg donated by an American woman.
She said her brother's sperm was used to conceive the second baby with the same egg donor, who acted as a surrogate, and that both babies live in Frejus with the woman, her brother and their 80-year-old mother.
The woman, who like her brother is single and had been childless, says she told the U.S. clinic that her brother was her husband.
"We are both healthy in mind and body," she was quoted as telling Le Parisien.
"I couldn't pass on my genes because of my age, so I wanted to pass on his and give life so our line could continue," the woman was quoted as saying.
In May, French Health Minister Bernard Kouchner said the birth was the first of its kind in France.
Kouchner told reporters then: "This poses the problem of fairly uncontrollable deviations in all our technical advances and scientific progress.
"It is not tragic but the very idea that this could become something with no limits, is obviously a problem."
The woman gave birth at the Lauriers Clinic in Frejus. The baby weighed three kilos (6.6 pounds).
The director of the clinic, Philippe Lavernhe, told LCI television in May that he and his staff had simply delivered the baby in accordance with their training. "The ethical problems arise afterward. It is certain that giving birth at 62 is very uncommon," Lavernhe said.
Guinness World Records 2001 lists two 63-year-old women who have given birth: Rosanna Della Corte of Italy in 1994 and Arceli Keh of California in 1996.
PARIS, France -- A 62-year-old woman who gave birth last month says her brother is the father of the child, the Associated Press reports.
The unnamed French woman -- who is one of the oldest women ever to give birth -- says the pregnancy was achieved using her 52-year-old brother's sperm and a donor egg. She says a second baby fathered by her brother -- a girl -- was born to a surrogate mother.
According to a 1994 French law, only couples can have "medically assisted procreation."
The woman has been identified in French media only as "Jeanine," says she underwent treatment at a Los Angeles clinic and gave birth on May 14 in Frejus in southern France.
Christian Girard, prosecutor in nearby Draguignan, said officials were studying the baby's "family environment."
The woman, a retired teacher, told Le Parisien newspaper in an interview published on Wednesday that her child was conceived from her brother's sperm and an egg donated by an American woman.
She said her brother's sperm was used to conceive the second baby with the same egg donor, who acted as a surrogate, and that both babies live in Frejus with the woman, her brother and their 80-year-old mother.
The woman, who like her brother is single and had been childless, says she told the U.S. clinic that her brother was her husband.
"We are both healthy in mind and body," she was quoted as telling Le Parisien.
"I couldn't pass on my genes because of my age, so I wanted to pass on his and give life so our line could continue," the woman was quoted as saying.
In May, French Health Minister Bernard Kouchner said the birth was the first of its kind in France.
Kouchner told reporters then: "This poses the problem of fairly uncontrollable deviations in all our technical advances and scientific progress.
"It is not tragic but the very idea that this could become something with no limits, is obviously a problem."
The woman gave birth at the Lauriers Clinic in Frejus. The baby weighed three kilos (6.6 pounds).
The director of the clinic, Philippe Lavernhe, told LCI television in May that he and his staff had simply delivered the baby in accordance with their training. "The ethical problems arise afterward. It is certain that giving birth at 62 is very uncommon," Lavernhe said.
Guinness World Records 2001 lists two 63-year-old women who have given birth: Rosanna Della Corte of Italy in 1994 and Arceli Keh of California in 1996.
