A 68-year-old Spanish TV actress has said that her newly adopted daughter was conceived using her dead son's frozen sperm and is in fact her granddaughter, reigniting a debate over the bioethics of surrogacy and children's right to privacy in Spain.
The weeks-old baby, named Ana Sandra, was born to a surrogate mother identified on Wednesday by the Lecturas magazine as a Cuban woman living in Miami, Florida.
"This girl isn't my daughter, but my granddaughter," TV actress Ana Obregon told celebrity magazine ¡Hola! in an interview, posing with the baby for the cover.
"If that was my son's last will and testament, how could I not do it?" she said, adding that only parents who had lost a child have a right to express an opinion on the matter.
Obregon's only biological child, her son Aless Lequio, died of cancer in 2020 at the age of 27. He was related through his father to Spain's King Felipe VI.¡Hola! reported on March 29 that Obregon had adopted a child born through a surrogate pregnancy in Miami, sparking a debate in Spain where all forms of surrogacy - including so-called "altruistic" ones where no money changes hands - are illegal.
Following that report, several government ministers criticised the practice.
"It is a form of violence against women," Equality Minister Montero said, adding that there was a "clear poverty bias" with regards to women who become surrogate mothers due to financial need.
Neither the actress nor her management agency have responded to a Reuters request for comment.
Obregon told ¡Hola! that surrogacy was not controversial in the United States.
"People here are open-minded, but in Spain, my God, we are in the last century," she said, adding that her son had originally wanted five children so she could not rule out further surrogate births using his sperm.
3 comments
To be able to write a comment, you have to be registered and logged in
Marvin Le MartianAnd the irony of Spain being one of 15 nations calling for Hungary to be sanctioned by the European Union. Because of its lack of liberalism. Be careful what you wish for. Minister Montero. And research equality it has an interesting definition you don’t seem to grasp.
How screwed up is our supposedly modern society becoming? And for her to praise the USA about being an open-minded society when state after state is backsliding on women’s abortion rights? Beyond belief.
Welcome to the 21st century. Equality , science, progress. What’s it to do with a politician anyway. Makes you wonder if this lady was a 68 years old man what the response would be. Nudge nudge… life in the old dog yet …macho bull I suspect. As long as those involved are willing And they can finance the kids. We it’s of no concern to anyone but those involved. I suspect there’s worse young parents out there than this lady.