CTV News has confirmed that Karla Homolka gave birth to a child last week, while an investigation is underway to determine whether a nurse refused to give the notorious killer medical care.

Quebec's Order of Nurses says Homolka gave birth on Feb. 6 in Montreal's St. Mary's Hospital.

"Ms. Homolka was there, she had a baby," the Order's Gyslaine Desrosiers told CTV News.

"She was a pregnant woman and she had a baby and everybody gave her the care she needed."

The identity of the child's father remains a mystery.

The Order is aware of the birth because St. Mary's is probing an anonymous tip, sent to a local newspaper, claiming one nurse refused to care for Homolka when she first arrived.

Hospital officials said they have no idea if the tip is true, or even if any rules were broken. But Arthur Schafer, a medical ethicist at the University of Manitoba, said nurses should never refuse treatment.

"Nurses and physicians are not priests," said Schafer.

"Their role is not to judge the virtue or wickedness of their patients. Their role is to provide medically necessary services to everyone who needs them."

Homolka left prison in 2005, after serving 12 years for her part in the brutal sex slayings of Leslie Mahaffy and Kristen French. Homolka's ex-husband, Paul Bernardo, is serving a life-sentence for the killings.

Mahaffy was only 14 when she was abducted, tortured and murdered in 1991. Her body was then dismembered, weighted down with concrete and thrown into a lake.

One year later, Bernardo and his then-wife Homolka kidnapped French, 15, before raping, torturing and killing her. They videotaped the brutal crime, as had they done with Mahaffy.

Homolka agreed to testify against Bernardo in 1993, resulting in a 12-year sentence for two counts of manslaughter.

"Karla Homolka got away with murder," said Tim Danson, lawyer for the victims' families.

"She should have been sentenced to life imprisonment like Paul Bernardo, and should never be in a position to have children."

Homolka lived with Bernardo in Port Dalhousie, a suburb of St. Catharines, Ontario. But she has since attempted to blend into Quebec society, evening unsuccessfully trying to change her last name to Tremblay -- one of the province's most common surnames.

She had already changed her name to Karla Leanne Teale.

With a report by CTV's Jed Kahane and files from The Canadian Press