parenting
Mother
Forces Teenage Daughter To Get Pregnant
Via
BusinessWeek reports:
A woman
desperate for another child forced her 14-year-old daughter to get pregnant
using syringes of donor sperm, a British judge said.In a ruling reported for
the first time Monday, High Court judge Peter Jackson said the mother had
behaved in “a wicked and selfish way” that almost defied belief.The judge said
the woman, an American divorcee living in Britain with three adopted children,
hatched the plan after she was prevented from adopting a fourth.
The scheme
involved getting her oldest daughter to inseminate herself with syringes of
sperm purchased over the Internet from a Denmark-based company, Cryos
International.Jackson said the daughter, identified only as A, “became pregnant
at the mother’s request, using donor sperm bought by the mother, with the
purpose of providing a fourth child for the mother to bring up as her own.”In
his ruling, the judge quoted the teenager as saying said she was shocked by the
suggestion, but thought, “If I do this … maybe she will love me more.”“My mum
is a very determined person and she does her best not to let anything get in
her way if she wants it,” the teenager added.
The judge
said the mother also made the teenager use douches of vinegar or lemon and lime
juice in hopes of increasing her chances of having a girl.The judge said it was
likely but not certain that the daughter soon became pregnant and suffered a
miscarriage.
After six
more attempts with the donor sperm, she gave birth to a baby boy in July 2011,
when she was 17.But midwives at the hospital became alarmed by the odd behavior
of A’s mother. Her daughter wanted to breastfeed the baby, but her mother said:
“We don’t want any of that attachment thing.”The hospital alerted the
authorities, and the children were taken into foster care.
The
mother is now serving a five-year jail term for child cruelty.Details of the
case were heard during proceedings at the family division of the High Court
over the children’s future last year. They were reported for the first time
Monday after several British media organizations, including the publisher of
The Guardian newspaper, challenged reporting restrictions.
A court
order bars identifying the family members in order to protect the children.
