Portuguese medics clear woman’s bid to bear grandchild

Lisbon, Portugal | AFP | Portugal has approved its first surrogate mother — a 50-year-old grandmother who will bear a child to allow her daughter to start a family, media reports said on Saturday.

The Portuguese Council for Assisted Birth late Friday unanimously approved the request of a 30-year-old woman who cannot bear children following a surgical procedure for endometriosis, the Expresso weekly said.

“Despite several other cases put forward, only this one was examined by the council and unanimously approved,” a statement said.

Portugal’s national medical council will now review it and has 60 days to make a ruling. It is widely expected to give it the go ahead.

Gestational surrogacy was legalised in Portugal in 2016 and confined to cases only where a woman cannot bear a child for medical reasons — especially due to a dysfunctional or absent uterus.

The law stipulates that surrogate motherhood should be altruistic — the woman who agrees to carry and give birth to a child should not be paid for her services.