A sister is testing the bounds of sibling sacrifice - she is a surrogate for her brother and sister-in-law by carrying their twin sons.
Tiffany Burke volunteered to give birth to children for her brother after his wife had to undergo an emergency hysterectomy.
Mrs Burke's sister-in-law Natalie Lucich, who is married to Mrs Burke's brother James, had to have her uterus removed immediately after giving birth to her son Hunter.
Modern family: Tiffany Burke (center left) is the sister of James Lucich (right) and she told her sister-in-law Natalie (center right) that she would serve as a surrogate. Tiffany's husband Sean (left) signed off as well
Growing: Natalie (right) had an emergency hysterectomy while giving birth to her son Hunter (center right) and afterwards Tiffany (center left) offered to serve as the couple's surrogate when they wanted to have more children
After Hunter's delivery, doctors could not stem the bleeding and had to remove the womb.
In the weeks immediately following the operation, Natalie told CNN that she was increasingly saddened - though understanding that the life-saving move had to be done - that she would not be able to fulfil her dream of having three children naturally.
When she voiced these complaints to her sister-in-law, who herself was a mother of two, Natalie said that perhaps they would use a surrogate.
'Honestly, I was pissed!' Tiffany wrote on her blog that she used to chronicle the family's unusual story.
'What if the surrogate drank, or smoked, or threw herself down the stairs! How do you trust someone like that with your baby! No way, no WAY!'
Without a moment's hesitation, she offered to serve as the surrogate for her brother and sister-in-law, and after several months of discussions between the Lucichs and Burke and her husband, all of the parties agreed and began the biological and legal processes associated with surrogacy.
The Washington-based relatives used fertility center Seattle Reproductive Medicine to help them take Natalie's conveniently frozen eggs and her husband's sperm to create two embryos.
Supportive: Tiffany, who has two sons of her own including her youngest named Blake (right), said that her family has all signed off
Controversial choice: Even though James and Tiffany were both adopted, the Lucichs (pictured) did not feel comfortable doing so when they wanted to expand their family
Two rounds with two embryos apiece resulted in Tiffany eventually being impregnated with the twins.
By documenting their journey explicitly on their blog and speaking to CNN, the group have tried to dispel common questions about the increasingly popular practice.
Given the fact that Tiffany and James are siblings, the question of incest comes up frequently but that is one that they are quick to shoot down.
'This is in no way shape or form incest. Tiffany's eggs are dormant during inception, and not used in this process. The embryos are already embryos - the start of life - before even being put in Tiffany. They are 100% James and Natalie's. Tiffany is truly just the carrier, the oven if you will,' she wrote on the blog.
'As an interesting side note, our situation is even more different since James and Tiffany were both adopted at birth, from different birth parents. They are not even blood related although it would not matter if they were. Tiffany would have done this for her biological brother as well. This is no different than a sister carrying for a sister.'
Another question that bothers Tiffany is why the couple went through the process of having another child if they already had a healthy baby boy, and on top of that, why not adopt?
'Our family is very pro adoption since James, Tiffany and another one of their siblings, Jonathan, are all adopted. The process for adoption is similar to surrogacy, long and hard and expensive,' she wrote.
'When my husband and I told everyone we wanted to have another baby, no one said, "You already have a child, you should be grateful for that." We conceived naturally and no one batted an eye, our second son was welcome with open arms and no judgement. So why is this any different?'
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2200883/Woman-offers-BROTHERS-children-wife-emergency-surgery-childbirth-babies.html#ixzz265Hk9Vug
