Reproductive revolution: A British lesbian couple have simultaneous reciprocal in-vitro fertilization and deliver each other’s baby!
Reproductive process has shown a vast revolution in the last few decades. History is been made. Another dispatch from this reproductive revolution comes from the UK. Here, a lesbian couple carried each other’s embryos and gave birth to two children.
Reproductive revolution in the UK
The millennium has seen a surge in the reproductive revolution. New history is being carved out every few weeks. And now, there is a fresh piece of news in this field from the UK.
Two lesbian women who are a couple had simultaneous reciprocal in-vitro fertilization and carried each other’s embryos to full-term. Later, each gave birth to her partner’s child. The sperm donor in both cases was same.
Also, read JoJo Siwa Says She Already has a Sperm Donor for Her Future Kids, Before Her 21st Birthday!
The lesbian couple’s names are Emily Patrick, 38, and Kerry Osborn, 35. They both gave birth to baby boy and have named them Elvis and Ezra respectively. This is a unique case in which in-vitro fertilization and surrogacy both are involved.
This is the first time that simultaneous reciprocal IVF has taken place in the UK. But Kerry hopes that it becomes a normal phenomena in the world. She said:
“We recognise that even a few years ago, this kind of reciprocal IVF wouldn’t have been an option. It was much harder to be gay parents. It says a lot about how far opinions have evolved that not only can we do this, but that so many people from the LGBTQ+ community are now following our progress and thinking about doing it too.”
Why did the lesbian couple opt for this unique method?
This is a variant form of surrogacy. The pair feel that it might help them in bringing up the kids in a better way. This is because they will feel a special bond and connection with the baby of the partner since they have carried the other partner’s child to term. Emily told Daily Mail UK:
“We decided to do it this way, we’d never heard of anyone doing it this way, we just thought it would be really lovely to share each other’s journey, being pregnant at the same time. And even though we are not genetically connected to the other child, we still share that bond.”
How did the lesbian couple choose their sperm donor?
As mentioned earlier, the two lesbians opted for the same sperm donor. But they found the process of choosing a sperm donor hard. Because the couple wanted a donor who resembled them in many ways. Kerry explained:
“There was no great ceremony, it was a Thursday night and we started swiping through sperm banks. The problem is that once you start, you can’t stop, there is so much choice. We chose a man about our own age who had two children and was donating for altruistic reasons – there were people in his family struggling with infertility and he wanted to help others.”
This example might motivate more lesbian couple’s to follow suit and give birth to each other’s kids. Although they opted for this unique method for extra bonding, studies to prove that this helps in better bonding need to be conducted for the health of the family and society.
