Her daughter is also her grandchild: The controversy around Spanish TV actor’s surrogate baby explained

A 68-year-old celebrity in Spain has revealed her surrogate baby is actually her granddaughter. A heated debate was triggered in Spain last week after socialite magazine ¡Hola! published a front-page picture of actor and presenter Ana Obregón with the newborn in her arms. She had then announced that she was the mother of the baby girl who was born through surrogacy. After the news rattled Spanish politics, Obregón has now told ¡Hola! that “this girl isn’t my daughter, she’s my granddaughter”. Let’s take a closer look at the story. Deceased son’s ‘last wish’ Obregón said the baby was biologically the daughter of her son who died of cancer in 2020 at the age of 27, reported Associated Press (AP). The weeks-old baby, named Ana Sandra, was conceived using the frozen sperm samples of her son, Aless Lequio García, which were stored in United States’ New York. As per AP, Obregón told ¡Hola! that doctors had recommended her son to preserve samples of sperm before starting cancer treatment. She also said her son had expressed a desire to have a child just before dying. [caption id=“attachment_12419262” align=“alignnone” width=“640”] Ana Obregón said the baby was biologically the daughter of her son who died of cancer in 2020. Reuters File Photo[/caption] “If that was my son’s last will and testament, how could I not do it?” the Spanish actor was quoted as saying by Reuters. As per BBC, Spain allows using a dead man’s sperm for insemination in assisted reproduction, but this must be done within a year of that man’s death and would require a widow. ¡Hola! reported that Obregón’s baby was conceived last June, when Aless would have turned 30, and was born in March this year. As per Spain’s Lecturas magazine, the surrogate mother is a Cuban woman from Miami, Florida. Why is there a controversy?

Surrogacy – when a woman carries and gives birth to someone else’s baby – is illegal in Spain.

However, children born from such pregnancies in other countries can be registered in the European nation, according to AP. When the earlier news of Obregón, who once featured in the US series The A-Team, having paid for surrogacy came to light, the topic spurred a debate in the country. Many politicians and even the Spanish media refer to the practice as “womb renting”, noted AP. Spain ’s ruling Socialist party said on 30 March that it will consider tightening measures around surrogate pregnancies. Equality minister Irene Montero called the practice “a form of violence against women”. Montero pointed out a “clear poverty bias” concerning women who agree to become surrogates due to financial needs, Reuters reported. Socialist treasury minister María Jesús Montero described surrogacy as the “exploitation of a woman’s body.” Defence minister Margarita Robles steered clear of criticising the TV star while saying the law on surrogacy is clear in Spain. She added that personal decisions should be respected. Spain’s main opposition conservative Popular Party took a different turn and said it was ready to debate legalising surrogate pregnancies if there is no payment involved. Socialist party parliament spokesman Patxi López was quoted as saying by AP: “We must turn around what we have at the moment to prevent anybody going or wanting to go abroad to seek ways of hiring a woman to have children and this must not allow them to be able on arriving in Spain register their children in total normalcy like absolutely nothing had happened”. ALSO READ: Italy planning blanket law against ‘procreative tourism’, offenders to face €1m fine What has Ana Obregón said about it? The issue overtook Spain not just because it was about surrogacy, but also because it concerned 68-year-old Obregón. Obregón, a biologist, is one of Spain’s best-known celebrities. She has called the debate around her baby’s birth “absurd”, saying that surrogacy is a form of assisted reproduction that is legal in other countries, reported BBC. [caption id=“attachment_12419272” align=“alignnone” width=“640”] Spanish TV actor Ana Obregón has called the debate around her surrogate baby ‘absurd’. Reuters[/caption] The Spanish TV star also said that only parents who had lost a child have a “right to express an opinion” on the topic. While Article 175 of Spain’s civil code does not allow people to adopt “a descendant”, Obregón has cleared that she is legally the baby’s mother, even if the girl is genetically her grandchild. As per Reuters, She told ¡Hola! that surrogacy was not controversial in America. “People here are open-minded, but in Spain, my God, we are in the last century”. Further, she did not rule out using her son’s frozen sperm for more surrogate births in the future. With inputs from agencies Read all the  Latest News ,  Trending News ,  Cricket News ,  Bollywood News , India News  and  Entertainment News  here. Follow us on  Facebook,  Twitter and  Instagram.