Recent news about a woman with ovarian problems successfully giving a birth via an egg from an anonymous donor may offer hope to those facing difficulty getting pregnant because of advanced age.

But a child born through this process technically has two mothers — a birth mother and a genetic mother — and this could spell trouble in Japan, where there are no laws regarding parent-child relationships stemming from such procedures.

On Wednesday, OD-Net, a nonprofit organization supporting fertility treatments, said the woman, in her 40s, gave birth through in-vitro fertilization using her husband's sperm and an anonymous donor's egg.