In a weird new attempt at playing God, one New York mom is actually trying to trade her own fertilized girl embryo for a boy one. And if that sounds like an episode out of a bad sci-fi flick…well, that about sums it up.
The woman, a 37-year-old actress identified only as “Lisa," and her husband said they’ve spent about $45,000 on IVF treatments after struggling with infertility for years. Using clinical help, they had a son, now a 9-year-old boy named Daniel. After after another round of egg collection, Lisa’s only got one fertilized egg left – and it’s a female.
But her son, she says, wants a little brother.
“I was surprised and sad,” Lisa said about finding out her sole remaining embryo was female.
Rather than use her last remaining embryo and give birth to her daughter, Lisa’s been scouring the internet for an embryo donor who’d be willing to trade their male baby for her female one – despite the fact that the female embryo is her own child.
“Now I have a commodity — something I can leverage,” Lisa said of her unborn baby girl.
The New York Post explains:
“I’m doing this for my son,” she told The Post. “My husband grew up with sisters and wants a boy too. This is the way we want to complete our family.”
Last Wednesday, Lisa took drastic action, sitting down at her computer and writing a message: “Hello, we have been trying to give my child a sibling for three years . . . we want to complete our family with a son. We have a great quality female embryo. Would you like to consider a trade?”
After posting her plea on Facebook – and getting a good amount of pushback for it – Lisa was apparently able to connect with a California woman who said she’s willing to swap kids. While the trade hasn’t happened yet, Lisa said she’s hopeful she’ll be pregnant with this other couple’s baby by Christmas, as she doesn’t want the age gap between the kids to be too wide.
If that weren't enough control, Lisa also said she hopes this other baby won’t look too different from her own biological son. Her daughter, on the other hand, is likely to be a blonde or a redhead, in case any potential kid-swappers are interested in that tidbit.
While there’s absolutely nothing wrong about raising a child who doesn’t share your DNA, there does seem to be something wrong – and utterly bizarre – about trading your biological child for someone else’s - especially based on gender.