Woman implanted with another couple's embryo gives birth

Sunday Sept 27, 2009 (foodconsumer.org) -- Not all guardian angels have wings and golden harps; some come in the form of everyday citizens willing to go above and beyond the call of being merely a responsible citizen.  One such selfless individual is Carolyn Savage.

Savage is the woman who was mistakenly implanted with the wrong embryo after visiting a well regarded fertility clinic in Ohio.  She was notified of the mistake about ten days after the procedure. The biological parents, the Morells, were from Michigan, and they found out about the mix up a day after Savage did.

Savage did the unexpected; she decided to carry the baby to term, then give him to his biological parents to raise.  She and her husband never considered aborting the pregnancy or retaining parental rights to the child.

The Morells say they will be forever grateful to the Savages for choosing to bring their baby boy into the world.  He was born at St. Vincent's Mercy Medical Center in Toledo Ohio, weighing in at 5 pounds and 3 ounces.

The clinic and both sets of "parents" are working out a deal, regarding damages.  They are trying to come up with some sort of compromise without resorting to litigation.

It's been 21 years since Louise Brown, the world's first "test tube baby" was born; her conception ushered in new options for infertile couples.  The process is hormonally controlled and involves removing the ova from the mother and fertilizing the eggs with sperm in a fluid medium.  Once fertilization has taken place, the zygote is then placed in the mother's uterus in an effort to establish a viable pregnancy, according to wikipedia.

By Rachel Stockton rachels at foodconsumer dot org