# Would you consider doing this for $6 million? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [June 22, 2001, 2:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-consider-doing-this-for-6-million/69780 "2001-06-22T14:33:32Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 14\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![woolly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/ebca7d/32.png) [@woolly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/woolly)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2001, 2:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-consider-doing-this-for-6-million/69780/1 "2001-06-22T14:33:32Z")
\*\* Woman, 62, bears brother’s IVF child \*\* [http://news.com.au/common/story\_page/0,4057,2167552%5E401,00.html](http://news.com.au/common/story_page/0,4057,2167552%255E401,00.html) > [@](#): > > \*LONDON: Debate raged yesterday in Europe about the morality of artificial insemination as a 62-year-old woman revealed she had her younger brother’s child through IVF. > … > Jeanine Salomone also revealed that a second child to her brother Robert, 52, was born a week later to an American surrogate mother who had been inseminated, in case Ms Salomone lost her baby. The woman, in California, had provided the eggs for both children. > … > Siblings Jeanine and Robert Salomone had travelled from their home in France to a US clinic and passed themselves off as husband and wife to get the IVF treatment. > … > They were desperate to have a child to secure an heir to their 80-year-old mother’s $6 million fortune. They feared the money would otherwise be split up among cousins. \* :eek: I’m just a bit confused as to where to start with this. Can anyone else make sense of it? ---
**Author:** ![Bumbazine](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bumbazine/32/362_2.png) [@Bumbazine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bumbazine)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2001, 9:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-consider-doing-this-for-6-million/69780/2 "2001-06-22T21:25:21Z")
It doesn’t look like anybody else wants to take a shot at this **woolly,** so I guess I’ll have at it. The egg that was carried to term was supplied by the woman in California, so the child is not in any danger of any of the effects of inbreeding AFAIK. That’s good. However, **sister** carried the child to term, so whether this would legally constitute incest depends upon if the law considers **sister** or **egg donor** the mother. To my mind, **sister** was nothing more than a delivery mechanism for **brother** and **egg donor** ’s baby, and as such, did not subject **baby** to any greater danger than she would have had she been any other 62 year old woman who was not **brother** ’s sibling, therefore, no harm, no foul. I don’t consider it any more _unethical_ than if the surrogate mother had not been related. I don’t make _moral_ judgements, and I have no idea how this will play out _legally._ Does that help? ---
**Author:** ![Freudian\_Slit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/5daacb/32.png) [@Freudian\_Slit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freudian_Slit)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2001, 10:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-consider-doing-this-for-6-million/69780/3 "2001-06-22T22:46:38Z")
It’s pretty sick, though, that they just wanted to have the kid to get the money. God forbid the **cousins** should have at it. I’d hate to be that child. Now as for the question… Would I do it for six million? Hmmm. Not if it were my brother, no. That’d just be odd. I know there’s no interbreeding or anything, but still. I might do it if it was someone else entirely, and it was a lot more money. Just so long as I was getting the most out of my experience. 😛 (I’m not cheap!) ---
**Author:** ![Enderw24](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ba9def/32.png) [@Enderw24](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Enderw24)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2001, 11:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-consider-doing-this-for-6-million/69780/4 "2001-06-22T23:40:57Z")
Would I impregnate a 62 year old woman? Hell, you’re practically describing my social life! ---
**Author:** ![Albert\_Rose](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9de053/32.png) [@Albert\_Rose](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Albert_Rose)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2001, 11:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-consider-doing-this-for-6-million/69780/5 "2001-06-22T23:48:58Z")
No, but I’d take $3 million to impregnate a 31-year-old woman. ---
**Author:** ![tracer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tracer/32/20578_2.png) [@tracer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tracer)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2001, 2:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-consider-doing-this-for-6-million/69780/6 "2001-06-23T02:30:43Z")
For 6 million dollars? Hell yes! Why, that’s enough money to buy two bionic legs, a bionic arm, and a bionic eye, fer cryin’ out loud! ---
**Author:** ![Lumpy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lumpy/32/446_2.png) [@Lumpy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lumpy)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2001, 3:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-consider-doing-this-for-6-million/69780/7 "2001-06-23T03:26:21Z")
This sounds like a science fiction story I read once. A woman agrees to carry the baby of her brother and his wife (she can produce eggs but can’t carry to term). When the baby- twins actually- are born, a routine blood test identifies the brother as the father, incest is presumed, and the law gets involved. This was written when in vitro fertilization and surrogate mothers still were science fiction. ---
**Author:** ![todaystomsawyer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/59ef9b/32.png) [@todaystomsawyer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/todaystomsawyer)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2001, 4:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-consider-doing-this-for-6-million/69780/8 "2001-06-23T16:44:09Z")
For six million, I’d screw a flaming goat while singing e-i-e-i-o…🆒 ---
**Author:** ![cher3](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/da6949/32.png) [@cher3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cher3)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2001, 4:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-consider-doing-this-for-6-million/69780/9 "2001-06-23T16:45:21Z")
I’m not sure, but hasn’t there been at least one case where a mother was surrogate for her own daughter? ---
**Author:** ![Enderw24](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ba9def/32.png) [@Enderw24](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Enderw24)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2001, 5:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-consider-doing-this-for-6-million/69780/10 "2001-06-23T17:50:34Z")
You wanna hear bizarro? I’ve heard of a case where scientist conceived a baby where the egg was taken from an aborted fetus. A kid was born having a mother who was never alive! And **AlbertRose** , you don’t want to know what I’d do for 1 million. ---
**Author:** ![MysterEcks](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f475e1/32.png) [@MysterEcks](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MysterEcks)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2001, 10:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-consider-doing-this-for-6-million/69780/11 "2001-06-23T22:28:09Z")
I can’t recall the name of it at the moment, but there was a Heinlein story which involved a person who was both his own mother and his own father–in the usual way. You gotta watch those time tracks. ---
**Author:** ![robgruver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/13edae/32.png) [@robgruver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/robgruver)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2001, 1:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-consider-doing-this-for-6-million/69780/12 "2001-06-24T01:31:27Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Enderw24 \* > \*\*You wanna hear bizarro? I’ve heard of a case where scientist conceived a baby where the egg was taken from an aborted fetus. A kid was born having a mother who was never alive! > \*\* IANAD, but this sounds a bit far fetched. Satire perhaps? If not, link?? ---
**Author:** ![Zebra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/c0e974/32.png) [@Zebra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zebra)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2001, 3:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-consider-doing-this-for-6-million/69780/13 "2001-06-24T03:19:09Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by tracer \* > \*\*For 6 million dollars? > Hell yes! > > Why, that’s enough money to buy two bionic legs, a bionic arm, and a bionic eye, fer cryin’ out loud! \*\* \*\* BWAH HAHAHAHAHAHAHA! \*\* hehehehehehehehehehe [sub]snort ---
**Author:** ![Enderw24](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ba9def/32.png) [@Enderw24](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Enderw24)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2001, 3:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-consider-doing-this-for-6-million/69780/14 "2001-06-24T15:55:52Z")
Whoa… I had just heard the story, rob. I didn’t really know if I could find any information on it to support my claim. But I have. [http://pages.map.com/lroberge/gosden1.htm](http://pages.map.com/lroberge/gosden1.htm) Granted, this doesn’t exactly say the procedure took place. But it was written in 1994 and says they’ll decide in the next year or so whether to approve this procedure. I’ll try to find out.