Family life in Britain 2008


Close knit ... a happy Paul, Janet, Stacey and George await the birth of new tot



THIS picture sums up how far family life in Britain 2008 has strayed from traditional values.

Jobless George Lee, 28, hugs his pregnant wife Stacey, 21 — yet the baby boy she is carrying proudly is NOT his.

She inseminated herself using a 50p turkey baster and sperm from George’s stepfather Paul, 57.

Stacey and her hubby already have one child each from previous relationships but both youngsters are being looked after by Social Services.

They say they intend to hand over Stacey’s new tot to George’s mother, Janet Cheetham, 54, — then all live happily together.

At least, that was until social workers stepped in after hearing about the bizarre pact.

Now they have been warned that the baby could be taken from them as soon as he is born.

Stacey, married to George for 18 months, accused social workers yesterday of wrecking the foursome’s dream of living together as one big family. She said:
We were all set and now they have stepped in and ruined it all.

I was going to have the baby and immediately hand him over to Janet and Paul.
Angry

They would have brought him up as their own and everyone would have been happy.

They would have had the child they so want and me and George would have had a lovely little brother.

We were all going to live as one big happy family. Now they have ruined it.
Angry Janet, who has three sons aged between 28 and 34, a daughter of 32 and is also a grandmother, said: “Social services will have robbed me of my dream if they take the baby away.

“They only got involved when we told hospital staff about the surrogacy.
“That child will be loved and cared for.
“We’ve already spent over £1,500 on a cot, pram, toys and clothes.
“We all went shopping for it together — me, Stacey, Paul and George.
“We picked out names for the baby — Jamie Harvey Leyton.”
Happy

George, who has a conviction for ABH, and worked at a shop until he was sacked a few years ago, has a son aged six.

He said: “All I wanted to do was make my mum happy. Social services keep referring to the baby as ‘Baby Lee’ but it’s not, it’s ‘Baby Cheetham’.
“My stepfather Paul is the baby’s father, not me.”

Speaking in Clayton, Manchester — at a council house they have all been sharing before the birth — Janet said Stacey artificially inseminated herself after reading how to on the internet.

She used the turkey baster and a Pyrex dish bought from discount store Wilkinson.

Janet said: “We did it over a period of three months here at the house.
“Paul would go off and do his stuff then Stacey would inseminate herself upstairs while me, George and Paul waited downstairs. It took three goes.”

Scottish-born Janet, who had a hysterectomy nearly 20 years ago after getting womb cancer, said she had been desperate for a baby with second husband Paul, a coach driver, since they wed 18 years ago.

She said: “We always wanted our own child but until recently it wasn’t possible, then there were all these medical advances with IVF and surrogacy.

“I knew about surrogacy but there was no one I could ask until Stacey came along. I didn’t expect her to say yes but I was so delighted when she did.”

She said of the Social Services warning: “We are going to fight it in the courts.”
Stacey, whose two-year-old daughter has now been adopted, said: “Me and George aren’t planning to have our own baby until a few more years.”

Dr Adrian Rogers, a GP and former director of the Conservative Family Institute, said: “This is feckless, selfish siring of children.
“It will damage the existing children and the forthcoming baby by confusing them. The 54-year-old woman will never be its mother genetically so that will confuse the child.

“The worst thing is that this woman and her husband will be in their seventies when this child is a teenager.
“What this family has done comes out of a lack of intelligence, insight and responsibility.”