In what is considered a world first, Melanie Boivin has donated her eggs to her daughter who is sterile because of a genetic condition called Turner’s syndrome.

The Montreal lawyer’s eggs are to be frozen until her seven-year-old daughter, Flavie, becomes of age to bear a child through in-vitro fertilization.

If she chooses to become pregnant, Flavie will be giving birth to her genetic sister and Boivin will simultaneously become mother and grandmother.

Some ethicists are calling the scenario a frightening “scrambling” of generations. For Boivin, however, the donation was an act of love.

“If my child had needed a kidney I would have given her one and no one would have questioned it. In this case it’s a gamete,” Boivin said Tuesday.

When Flavie failed to grow normally, doctors discovered she had a genetic disorder that occurs in about one of 2,000 live births.

Instead of the usual pair of chromosomes, those with Turner’s syndrome have an incomplete X chromosome or lack one altogether and are born without eggs. Sterility is a consequence.

Boivin approached the McGill University Health Centre last year after attending a conference in Ottawa on fertility options for Turner’s syndrome.

Seang Lin Tan, director of the McGill Reproductive Centre at the MUHC, who two years ago spearheaded an egg-freezing program for cancer patients, took Boivin as a patient.

The issue of mother to daughter donation is ethically contentious, Tan conceded.

“I put it up to the ethics committee for special clinical consideration,” Tan said.

“The reality is that by the time (the child) thinks of doing this, say in 20 years from now, society’s attitude will be different.”

But ethicist Margaret Somerville said reproductive technologies fail to take into account the consent of the unborn child.

“We have to think about what we are doing when we are running around nature,” Somerville said. “Giving birth to your own sister completely screws up the normal transition of life.”

This is a mom thing to do everything you can to ensure that your child will someday experience life like other women.

I can see why there is so much concern about the ethical nature of carrying your own brother/sister. I don’t think our society is at a place to accept it…even though the gesture comes from a VERY good place.

At the end of the day, no matter she does, any child she carries will not be hers so…why wouldn’t you just get an egg from a doner who has been proven to not have any health issues and then remove the chances of scrutiny from others for years to come?

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Maliyah Herrin, 5, is in critical condition at Primary Children’s Medical Center after receiving her mother’s right kidney in an operation that took nearly seven hours Tuesday. Erin, her mother, is in fair condition.

The surgery team cheered when Erin Herrin’s kidney changed ownership and started producing urine just minutes after it was implanted in the little girl’s abdomen.

Al Hartmann, Associated Press

Erin Herrin kisses Maliyah before their surgeries as father Jake looks on Tuesday at Primary Children’s. Erin donated a kidney to Maliyah.

“It’s always exciting to see a kidney that has been taken from one individual basically come alive in another individual,” said transplant surgeon Dr. John Sorensen. “I never get tired of it.”

Maliyah and her twin sister, Kendra, were born joined at the abdomen. They shared several organs and a pelvis, as well as use of Kendra’s kidney until they were surgically separated in August. The decision on when to separate them and much of the reconstruction done during that operation were driven by knowledge that Maliyah would need a kidney transplant afterward. She has since been on dialysis three days a week.

“Looking back, it’s amazing how far we’ve come. We thought we’d never get to this point. We’re really through the big challenges,” said Jake Herrin after the transplant, which is expected to be the last major childhood surgery for either twin.

The entire transplant took nearly seven hours and was much less complex than doctors had feared it would be. There were no complications, said Sorensen and Dr. Rebecka Meyers, who was on Maliyah’s transplant team and who was coordinating surgeon during the 26-hour separation surgery last summer.

When the surgery transferring the kidney from his wife to his daughter was over, Jake Herrin thanked the surgical teams repeatedly for what he called “miracle after miracle.”

Monday, Maliyah had been excited and “bouncing off the walls” happy after her final dialysis session, Jake said. She told everyone she met she was getting a new kidney tomorrow.

Surgeons had also worried that space in Maliyah’s abdomen would be a problem, since the two girls had shared one abdomen only slightly larger than that of a normal child. Although it was tight, it was adequate, helped in part by the fact that the kidney Erin donated was slightly small for an adult kidney.

Erin will need to be in the hospital for a week and Maliyah will stay for the next two weeks or more. Doctors are optimistic that there will be a happy ending, but she’ll be closely watched for signs of infection and her lab values monitored as doctors adjust immuno-suppressant medications to see that she doesn’t have a severe kidney rejection episode.

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Sometimes while looking for articles for this site I come across come really tragic stories about parents and children. I try not to post negative articles unless there are health risks attached. Today I found this story that is makes me realize what good parents are!

A family has made medical history after parents of identical twin sisters donated a kidney to each of their daughters on the same day.

Diane and David Spensley from Godalming, Surrey, decided to act after their daughters were left waiting for a suitable donor for three years.

Twins Anna Spensley and Allison Mann, 29, had been on a transplant list since they were both diagnosed with renal failure in 2003.

Doctors said the double transplant, which took place at St George’s Hospital in Tooting, London, two weeks ago, was the first time parents of twins have both been able and willing to donate their kidneys and gone through all the necessary operations in one day.

Mr and Mrs Spensley spent six months preparing for the surgery after surprise test results showed they were both compatible as donors. Businessman Mr Spensley, 53, said: “I feel a bit sore but otherwise we are all fine. It has all been worth it. We had always known that if there was anything we could do to help we would.

“At the point when we passed the tests there was no doubt we would donate. People can exist with just one of their kidneys working so giving one away was not an issue.”

Mrs Spensley, 52, was the first to be operated on. Czech surgeon Jiri Fronek used revolutionary keyhole surgery during a four-hour operation to remove her kidney.

He then transplanted it into Allison. A few hours later Mr Spensley went under the knife. His kidney was removed and transplanted into Anna.

Apart from visits to the hospital for routine check-ups, the operation means life can return to normal for the sisters, whose daily routines were governed by restrictive diets and their dialysis regime.

SOURCE:dailymail