Mom Forced Daughter, 14, to Impregnate Herself

A mother who was barred from adopting more children found a criminal way to increase her brood: She forced her 14-year-old daughter to start inseminating herself with donor sperm the mother bought on the Internet. The girl, a virgin, is thought to have miscarried at 14, and ended up giving birth at age 16 after inseminating herself seven times, the Guardian reports. The disturbing details are included in a recently opened court judgment; the mother, who NBC News reports is an American living in the UK, is serving five years in prison.

The unnamed mother did not want to give birth due to a health problem, so she adopted her three children from abroad when they were infants, two of them while married and one after she divorced. She was attempting to adopt a fourth child when she was denied and came up with the plot involving her daughter. Midwives who delivered the baby became suspicious when the mother tried to keep her daughter from breastfeeding the new baby ("we don't want any of that attachment thing," she reportedly said), and called in child protection workers when the mother tried to take the baby away from her daughter. The girl later told investigators she didn't want to participate in her mom's scheme, but thought that "if I do this … maybe she will love me more." (More adoption stories.)