Cape Town - A Cape Town woman is contesting current laws around surrogacy that require there be a genetic link with a parent, the Sunday Times reported.
“It is my contention that the genetic link requirement infringes on the constitutional rights of prospective commissioning parents and single infertile people,” said the woman, aged 55, in a 50-page affidavit filed in the High Court in Pretoria.
Since 2001, the woman has had two miscarriages amid 18 failed in vitro fertilisation (IVF) procedures. At first she used her eggs and her husband's sperm in these attempts. However, she has subsequently become divorced and her eggs have been deemed unviable.
The woman found a surrogate willing to be impregnated by donor sperm and donor egg but by then the law had changed requiring that either the sperm or egg of one of the commissioning parents is used.
The Department of Social Development has indicated it will oppose the woman's application.
The woman was granted a legal order to guarantee her anonymity. - Sapa