MADRID (AP) — A 68-year-old Spanish television actress has said her newly adopted daughter was conceived with her late son’s frozen sperm and is, in fact, his granddaughter, reigniting a debate over the bioethics of surrogacy and surrogacy. Children’s right to privacy in Spain.
The week-old baby, named Ana Sandra, was born to a surrogate mother identified Wednesday by Lecturas magazine as a Cuban woman living in Miami, Florida.
«This girl is not my daughter, but my granddaughter,» television actress Ana Obregón told the entertainment magazine ¡Hola! in an interview, posing with the baby for the cover.
«If that was my son’s last will and testament, how could I not?» she said, adding that only parents who have lost a child have the right to express an opinion on the matter.
Obregón’s only biological child, his son Aless Lequio, died of cancer in 2020 at the age of 27. He was related through his father to King Felipe VI of Spain.
Hello! reported on March 29 that Obregon had adopted a child born through a surrogate pregnancy in Miami, sparking a debate in Spain where all forms of surrogacy, including so-called «altruistic» ones, where money doesn’t change hands, are illegal.
Following that report, several government ministers criticized the practice.
“It is a form of violence against women,” said Equality Minister Montero, adding that there was a “clear poverty bias” regarding women who become surrogate mothers out of financial need.
Neither the actress nor her management agency have responded to a Reuters request for comment.
Obregon said Hello! that surrogacy was not controversial in the United States.
“People here are open-minded, but in Spain, my God, we are in the last century,” she said, adding that her son originally wanted five children, so she could not rule out more surrogate births with her sperm.
Obregón rose to fame in the 1980s and starred in Spanish sitcoms in the late 1990s and early 2000s. He also made cameo appearances on American television shows such as «The A-Team,» «Who’s the boss?» and “General Hospital”.
On Wednesday, he said on his Instagram account that a book he co-wrote with his son would go on sale on April 19.