Woman gives birth to brother

A woman has given birth to her own stepbrother after acting as a surrogate for her mother, it emerged yesterday.

Carole Moore, 29, decided to have the baby for 52-year-old Maureen Knight after womb cancer robbed Mrs Knight of the chance to give birth.

The baby, called Luke, was conceived using the sperm of Mrs Moore's 57-year-old stepfather Harry, Mrs Knight's third husband. So Luke is both Mrs Moore's son and her stepbrother.

But he is being raised as a son by Mrs Knight, who has since broken up with her husband.

Moral implications

Last night, the surrogacy - which is thought to be unprecedented - provoked an outcry over its ethical and moral implications. It was condemned by the pro-life charity Life as 'sordid'.

The birth came after Mr Knight decided at 57 that he was ' desperate' to be a father and the family hatched the plan to provide the ageing couple with a baby.

Because Mrs Knight's doctor disapproved - she was already a grandmother to her daughter's three children - the family sought help from the controversial charity Childlessness Overcome Through Surrogacy.

DIY insemination

Mrs Moore, who says the surrogacy was her idea, became pregnant using a DIY insemination kit provided by the charity.

Luke was born healthy and at the age of ten is growing up proudly telling his friends he has 'two mums'.

Yesterday Mrs Moore, now 39, and Mrs Knight, now 62, spoke for the first time about the surrogacy arrangement.

Mrs Knight is raising Luke alone in a flat in Bournemouth after her amicable split with Mr Knight, a retired Merchant Navy engineer, who lives in nearby Poole.

Mrs Moore, a nursery nurse, refers to Luke as her 'brother'. Her three grown-up children by her 39-year-old husband Mark, an Army warrant officer, look on the boy as their uncle - although he is their half-brother.

'Desire to be a father

Mrs Moore said: "When my mum's second husband Allan died, she went to a dating agency and that is how she met Harry. After a while, they got married and were a very happy couple.

"Harry had not been married before, and he confided that he loved children and had always wanted to be a father.

"My mother could not have children. She had cancer of the womb when she was 24 and needed a hysterectomy and lost twins.

"I saw an article in the paper about surrogacy. Me and my husband talked about it for a year and discussed what effect it would have on us.

"Me and my mum have always had a fantastic relationship and she was overjoyed when I put the idea to her. It wasn't done for money, it was done for love."

Conception

The conception took place at Mrs Moore's home in Winchester, with her mother and husband present.

"It did feel a bit intrusive, because Mark has been my only partner," she said. "But it was in a good cause. I only had to do it once, because I became pregnant straight away."

As the birth approached, Mrs Knight deliberately put on weight so her friends and neighbours would think she was pregnant. After the birth, Mrs Moore handed Luke over to her mother.

Mrs Moore said: "I held him very briefly and told him I loved him and gave him a kiss. But I never felt he was mine, so I didn't feel I was losing anything."

Six weeks later, Mr Moore was posted to Germany and she moved with him.

"It was three years before I saw Luke again, but I never had any regrets. I don't feel that he is my son, I feel that he is my brother and it does get very confusing."

Mrs Knight's story

Mrs Knight said: "When I met Harry, I was in my 50s and had resigned myself to never having any more children. So when he told me he had always wanted to be a dad, I was shocked.

"When Carole came to us and offered to have a baby for us, I cried tears of joy."

The family said that register office staff insisted Mr Moore should be put down as the father because he and Carole were married and Mr Moore had consented to the surrogacy.

Later, parental responsibility for Luke was transferred to the Knights by filling in a form at a local magistrates court.

Mrs Knight said: "Luke doesn't miss out on anything. He has a dad who is with him every day if he wants and I go down to the park to play football with him."

For Luke, his origins have never been a secret. "When I try to explain it to my schoolfriends, they get a bit confused," he said. "But I'm the only one with two mums, so I feel really special."

Medical ethics

But medical ethicist Dr Jacqueline Laing said emotional complications from children of surrogacy may emerge only in adulthood.

"Although this child tells people he is happy, he is only ten years' old," she added. "The ordinary connections between parents have been torn. Just because adults can do something, doesn't mean that they should."

Nuala Scarisbrick, of Life, said the surrogacy deal was 'sordid' and tantamount to abuse. She called for agencies such as COTS to be outlawed.