Woman wants to carry dead sister's child

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STOCKHOLM, Sweden, March 21 (UPI) -- A Swedish woman has asked the National Board of Health and Welfare to allow her to serve as a surrogate mother for her dead sister.

She has asked the agency for an exception to the country's ban on surrogate pregnancies, The Local.se reported.

Her sister, in her will, left her the unfertilized eggs she wants to use.

"When, together with my parents, we buried our dear sister/daughter, we had one heartfelt wish -- that I could carry my sister's baby and thereby keep her genetic heritage for posterity," the woman said in her application to the board, quoted in the newspaper Dagens Medicin.

Sweden has banned surrogate motherhood but many European countries allow it, and some groups in Sweden argue it should be legal there -- at least as long as no one is making money from it.

Lotta Eriksson, secretary for the National Council on Medical Ethics, said a majority on the council support legalization, including the use of eggs from those who have died.