Infertile women can use facial recognition software to find lookalike egg donors
INFERTILE women can now use facial recognition software to find lookalike egg donors.
The selfie service increases the chance of the child looking like the recipient mum.
Spanish firm Ovobank, which has eggs from more than 4,000 donors, says its computers examine 100 points on each face to ensure a close likeness.
Alberto Lale, from the company, said: “Most people, when they choose egg donation for their treatment, would like their children to resemble them as much as possible.
“It’s better to do it through an objective process, a mathematical algorithm, rather than a human.
“A computer algorithm tends to be more accurate.”
The service costs around £90 on top of standard IVF and egg donor fees, which run to thousands of pounds.
The clinic in Marbella says it has English patients and can ship the chosen eggs worldwide in as little as 24 hours.
But they cannot be sent to the UK because of a ban on the use of eggs from anonymous donors.
And some experts have raised potential moral concerns over the process.
Dr Gillian Lockwood, from Midland Fertility, said: “I can see the appeal for the couple of having the baby they ‘would’ have had if only she had fertile eggs.
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“But UK philosophy about donation is that the child is entitled to know about the circumstances of their conception, even if the information is very limited.
“If the child looks exactly as expected, it may reinforce the tendency not to tell.”
Figures show 3,924 women in the UK had IVF using a donor egg in 2016 — up from 1,912 in 2006.
"The rise was put down to increased awareness, more donors and more same sex couples.
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