Accidental surrogate hands over baby after IVF mistake

Carolyn Savage gave birth to a beautiful baby boy at Mercy St Vincent Medical Centre in Toledo, but he wasn't hers.

Due to a mix up at the fertility clinic, Mrs Savage had been implanted with an embryo belonging to Shannon and Paul Morell.

Given the choice of terminating the pregnancy or handing the baby over once he was born, she chose to carry the child to term.

Mrs Morell, whose maiden name was also Savage, had six embryos frozen after giving birth to twins. But when they were ready to try for a third child they got an urgent call from their fertility doctor, the New York Post reports.

"I'm so sorry, Shannon, but there's been a terrible incident in our lab," he said. "Your embryos have thawed."

"Your embryos were transferred to another woman."

Due to a human error at the lab, Mrs Morell's embryos were filed under her maiden name and transferred to Mrs Savage.

"I couldn't have felt more violated," Mrs Morell wrote in a new memoir, Misconception. "Of all the people in the world - of all the people who have embryos at this clinic - why did this happen to us?"

The two couples met during the pregnancy and the women warmed to each other. They bonded and became friends. The baby, named Logan, also has the middle name Savage.

"There's a connection with these people," Mrs Morell said in an interview with The New York Post. "He's given that name so he'll always remember what happened."

Intending mothers fight for maternity leave following surrogacy

Following new UK government guidelines on surrogacy published last month aimed at improving the rights of surrogacy patients, Ministers are now facing a new legal challenge calling for further changes in the law.

Specialist fertility law firm, Gamble and Ghevaert, have written to Ministers demanding that the current rules, which prevent women who use surrogates from receiving maternity benefits, be changed. At present, only women who themselves go through a successful pregnancy are entitled to paid maternity leave and employment protection - even in cases where they are not the genetic parent. Thus, surrogate mothers are entitled to all maternity benefits. However, no such rights are available for parents who use a surrogate or adopt, leading campaigners to describe the current position as discriminatory.

Natalie Gamble, partner at Gamble and Ghevaert, explained the situation thus: 'The lack of right to maternity leave is tied up with the fact the surrogate mother is regarded as the mother…In any other circumstances you would get maternity leave. Women aren't going to need a whole year. What would make sense is a system where you have some sort of sharing arrangement [for maternity leave]'. She continued, 'We also need to take account of our modern human rights and anti-discrimination laws which do not allow unfair treatment of minority groups, however small they are'. At present, approximately 40 babies are born through surrogacy in Britain each year, mainly due to medical reasons which prevent some women from giving birth themselves.

Surrogacy in Britain is laden with problems. Surrogates in Britain may not receive payment for the service they render, apart from expenses. Furthermore, surrogacy agreements are not legally binding, meaning the surrogate mother has the right to keep the baby she gives birth to, even if the child is not genetically related to her, and she has been paid all expenses. These restrictions have led to couples going overseas to carry through a surrogacy arrangement. However this can also present difficulties; the worst case scenario is that a much-wanted baby is recognised in neither Britain, nor the country of it's birth.

Sharmy Beaumont, aged 33, is one of the few UK women who has become a parent with the help of a surrogate. Beaumont was born with a rare condition which meant her womb could not cope with carrying a child. After learning of this in her twenties, Beaumont contacted Surrogacy UK and was put in touch with her surrogate, Liz Stringer. After a successful surrogate pregnancy and the birth of her baby daughter, Isabelle, Beaumont was forced to take unpaid leave in order to care for her.

She says, 'My work have been understanding and have allowed me some leave to look after Isabelle…However, the fact that parents through surrogacy are not entitled to any maternity benefits to spend time with their babies is unfair and the Government has not recognised this'.

'I love being a mum,' Beaumont concludes, 'but the system is unfair'.