April 20, 2024

At 58, Russian woman uses surrogates to have 4 kids

Michael Cook

A 58-year-old Moscow woman has become the grandmother of 4 children after using her deceased son’s sperm and two surrogate mothers.

A 58-year-old Moscow woman has
become the grandmother of 4 children after using her deceased son’s sperm and
two surrogate mothers. Lamara Kelesheva, a medical doctor,
had not expected four bundles of joy, as five previous attempts had failed. But
both of the women she engaged became pregnant with twins. They gave birth two
days apart in January. Dr Kelesheva’s son Dmitri left sperm in a sperm bank
before he died of acute leukaemia in 2005 at the age of 23.

At
the moment, the children are embroiled in a court case. The Moscow
Civil Registry Office refused to register them, as only a husband and wife are
allowed to resort to the services of surrogate mothers. So, for the time being,
the children — three boys and one girl — do not exist legally. Ms Kelesheva
is currently battling in the courts.

This is the third time that a Russian
grandmother has used the sperm of a deceased son, but the case has attracted some
adverse comment in a country where people marry young and have only 2 children
at the most. “All these exercises in biomechanics ultimately lead
to this very ambiguous situation when you can’t really tell the difference
between a son and grandson,” says
pro-life activist Andrey Khvesyuk. “There
are so many orphans in Russia so if she just wanted to be a mother, she
could’ve easily realized her maternal instincts…  I think ultimately it’s
a very selfish drive to pass your genes, no matter what”. ~ Russia Today, June
7

Michael Cook
Russia
surrogacy

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