Some say there are no limits to a mother's love. Many moms will do anything to protect their children, no matter their age. Only parents who have experienced the devastation of losing a child can understand the grief that comes along with that. It's emotionally complex and often causes a kind of pain that no parent should ever have.
Spanish TV star Ana Obregón, 68, lost her only son, 27-year-old Aless Lequio García, to cancer back in 2020. She was left heartbroken, as any mother would be. Now, she has preserved the memory of her son in an unconventional way that has many people up in arms.
In an interview with Hola Magazine last week, she announced that she has adopted a baby girl named Ana Sandra born through a surrogate. But this was no ordinary adoption. Baby Ana Sandra is Obregón's biological granddaughter, conceived with her late son's sperm. The news has a lot of fans scratching their heads.
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Obregón claims she was losing her will to live after her son's death.
With her son's passing came a palpable grief that Obregón struggled to work through. She told Hola in a cover story that she adopted the child via surrogacy but declined to say who the biological parents are. Vice reported that surrogacy in Spain is actually illegal and often referred to as "womb renting."
Obregón lives in Miami, where she has cared for the infant since her birth on March 20, 2023.
Garcia froze his sperm before undergoing chemotherapy.
It's common for a man to freeze his sperm before beginning intense cancer treatment. There is always hope that a patient will survive and chemotherapy can interfere with a man's sperm viability, so freezing it offers the chance to have a baby after recovery.
Sadly, Garcia succumbed to his cancer, but his mother decided to preserve his memory and use a surrogate to carry her granddaughter.
"He communicated this to his father and I a week before he died," she told Hola. "It's called a holographic testament that's produced when a person, in front of witnesses, expresses their last wishes."
She began the search for a surrogate the day he died.
Wasting no time, Obregón started the surrogacy process, telling only Garcia's sisters of her plan. Per Vice, she did not reveal the surrogacy or the child's birth until she spoke exclusively with Hola.
The surrogacy was met with controversy and criticism because of Spain's stance on the subject. According to some, including Equality Minister Irene Montero of the left-wing United We Can coalition partner, "we recognise it as a form of violence against women."
Some say Obregón should have kept the information to herself.
No matter how the child came to be, some critics say the infant has a right to her privacy and that telling the story so soon after the baby's birth seems like a bit of a publicity stunt.
Vice reported that consultant and media personality Verónica Fumanal told a Spanish radio station that Obregón is essentially exploiting her son and granddaughter.
"You benefit financially from this and you deprive from this creature that's just days old of the only thing she has — her privacy, her right to privacy," she reportedly said.
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A similar story made headlines in early March.
News reporter Dylan Lyons, 24, was killed on assignment in February during a shooting in Florida. The suspect shot and killed a 9-year-old girl and injured two others. Devastated at the loss of her fiancé, 26-year-old Casey Fite had Lyons' sperm extracted postmortem and hopes to get pregnant with his child in the future.
"I know I only have so many chances and I just feel like if I were to do it right now there would be too much stress on it, and I would end up miscarrying, and that's not something I want," Fite told Good Morning America. "Nobody wants [a miscarriage], but it's not like he's here and we can keep trying, so I have to be smart about it."
