Court to rule in case of woman who wants to use dead daughter's eggs to give birth

A woman who wants to use her dead daughter's frozen eggs to give birth to her own grandchild will find out today if she has persuaded judges to allow her to continue her legal battle.

The 60-year-old, whose daughter died of cancer, lost an action at the High Court last year.

Two Court of Appeal judges were asked at a recent hearing in London to give permission to the woman and her 59-year-old husband to challenge the decision.

During proceedings the High Court heard how the daughter, who can only be referred to as "A", was desperate to have children and asked her mother to "carry my babies".

Her parents, who are referred to as "Mr and Mrs M", challenged a regulator's refusal to allow them to take the eggs of their "much-loved and only child" to a US fertility treatment clinic to be used with donor sperm.

The Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority said the eggs could not be released from storage in London because A did not give her full written consent before she died at the age of 28 in June 2011.

Mr Justice Ouseley heard that A would have been devastated if she had known her eggs could not be used.

But the judge ruled that the HFEA had been entitled to find the daughter had not given the required consent.

It was thought that if the case had been won, Mrs M could have become the first woman in the world to become pregnant using a dead daughter's eggs.