A same
sex couple in South Africa have become fathers to triplets who share
both fathers' DNA, after a surrogate agreed to bear their children.
Sky News reported that Theo and Christo Menelaou, who were friends and
neighbours of former Paralympian Oscar Pistorius, met the surrogate at a
neighbourhood meeting that took place in the wake of Pistroius' trial.
In a rare case of shared parenthood, both men are biological fathers,
with one egg each having been fertilised with a different dad's DNA.
Doctors
had advised to terminate two of the babies during the pregnancy, after
they discovered that one of the eggs had split and the surrogate was
pregnant with triplets.
However the fathers decided against taking the advice and the babies
were born prematurely in early July, weighing each only a little over a
kilogramme, and one of them still requires heart surgery in the coming
months.
But after weeks in hospital, all three children are home with their
happy parents in Pretoria, fitted with alarms to monitor their breathing
and supported by two nurses.
According to Sky News, the Menelaous are believed to be the first same
sex couple in South Africa to have triplets - two girls and a boy -
which include identical twins, using a surrogate.
