14 DAY TRIAL // A mother living in the UK has forced her teenage daughter to inseminate herself, in a bid to provide her with a fourth child.
According to the Guardian, the unnamed mother has made her 14-year-old daughter submit herself to repeated inseminations through the course of two years.
The 16-year-old girl is one of the woman's three adopted children. She resorted to having her carry another child after being refused a fourth adoption.
"Nothing can change what has happened to the children in this truly terrible case. It is clear that public bodies must highlight the major public policy issues which arise from this case.
"The lessons from this case are already being put into practice as the relevant agencies are starting to implement its draft findings.
"The relevant local Safeguarding Children Board has undertaken a serious case review and they aim to have this published in the coming weeks," a spokesperson for the Safeguarding Children Board says in a statement.
The daughter started using syringes of semen bought online when she was only 14 years old. She carried a pregnancy to term at 16 years old, and suffered a miscarriage in the process.
"[She] became pregnant at her mother's request, using donor sperm bought by the mother, with the purposes of providing a fourth child for the mother to bring up as her own," the court document reads.
The first time that the girl was inseminated, a donor was invited to the family home. Subsequent donations came from the Cryos International bank in Denmark.
The mother would supervise the girl's ovulation periods and force her to undergo vinegar and lemon or lime juice douches, which she hoped would result in her giving birth to a girl. She has been tried and convicted for child cruelty.
"The AI [artificial insemination] programme was planned when A [the daughter] was 13," the judge adds.