New Zealand, Surrogacy

NZ – The Gift of Life: Egg donor becomes surrogate as pay back for sperm donation

Source Stuff NZ

Natasha Dalziel has three children – three “gifts” born from sperm donation – so as she sees it, she owes three gifts in return.

The 30-year-old from Te Awamutu has donated her eggs to help a couple conceive, and is currently 16 weeks pregnant as a surrogate for a gay couple, all in the name of “paying it forward”.
Five years ago, Dalziel and her then-wife walked into a fertility clinic for the first time.

Then 25 years old, she joined a waiting list for a donor, before finding the match that gave her her son Jacob, now 4, 12 months later.

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Surrogacy

Surrogate mom gets temporary custody; biological dad sues

Source Chroniclet

ELYRIA — A Lorain father has filed a lawsuit against the surrogate mother of his 4-year-old daughter for breach of contract after a judge awarded temporary custody to the surrogate, who in the initial surrogacy contract agreed to have no contact with the child.

Last week, Thomas Mika filed a lawsuit against Sanchia Weinstein, of Lorain, for fraud and breach of contract for violating a surrogate agreement.

According to the lawsuit, the two sides entered into the agreement in 2013 and Mika supplied his frozen sperm to be artificially inseminated with one of Weinstein’s eggs. Weinstein was then to carry the child until birth and then have no legal rights to the child.

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Surrogacy

Surrogacy Regulation Bill 2016: What is Surrogacy? A Guide To Understanding The Surrogate Birth Procedure

Source Latestly

The Surrogacy (Regulation) Bill, 2016 was passed in the Lok Sabha yesterday 19th of December. The bill is said to help prevent commercialisation of the procedure of surrogacy. Surrogacy Bill aims to curb exploitation of vulnerable women and make the process of surrogacy free of any loopholes. However, the process of surrogacy is one misunderstood subjects especially in countries like India. Using a surrogate mother being a new concept even now, needs more clarity and awareness to different aspects of it like who can become a surrogate mother, how to find a surrogate mother, legal processes behind it and who can opt for surrogacy as a process to become parents. Here’s everything you would want to know about surrogacy.

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India, Surrogacy

India – Couples ready to challenge Surrogacy Bill

Source New Indian Express

BENGALURU: Couples who had pinned hopes on surrogacy as an option to become parents are now planning to go to court to challenge the newly passed Surrogacy Bill. The bill says only legally married couples who have been medically proven infertile can opt for surrogacy. It bans commercial surrogacy, and allows only “altruistic surrogacy”.“The bill basically has tried to ensure that people trying to misuse surrogacy commercially should be curbed. But the Bill has many loopholes which has to be addressed, otherwise many couples will lose their chance of being parents,” said Dr B Ramesh, IVF and infertility specialist.

Meanwhile, Sarika N A and Govind Bhat, software professionals who have been married for six years, and who were thinking of surrogacy as an option have now decided to talk to associations concerned to take the matter legally.“We had almost finalised on this process with our doctor and now we are shocked with this bill. It is ridiculous. How can government interfere into someone’s personal choices? Which relative would agree to bear the whole of pregnancy? We will definitely go to court against this and also explore other options,” said Sarika.

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Surrogacy

Tattnall County woman becomes surrogate for the second time

Source WTOC

TATTNALL COUNTY, GA (WTOC) – This is the season of giving, and one Tattnall County woman is giving a couple a gift they will cherish forever.

Jessi Winkler decided to be a surrogate mother for a couple back in 2015. After having a baby girl for the couple, she decided to do it for them again – but this time – there’s a big surprise involved.

Jessi and her husband Sean have lived in Reidsville with their children for most of their lives. A few years ago, Jessi and her husband talked about her carrying a child for her cousin who was having complications getting pregnant.

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Ireland, Surrogacy

Ireland – Babies could be handed over to parents in car parks under ‘flawed’ proposed surrogate laws

Source Independent

Proposals to regulate surrogacy run the risk of leaving new parents being handed over a baby in a hospital car park, the Oireachtas health committee has heard.

Dr Deirdre Madden, of the School of Law in Cork, was commenting on the General Scheme of the Assisted Human Reproduction Bill 2017, which plans to legislate for fertility and related treatments.

She said the proposals in relation to surrogacy should be changed.
Parents who are using a surrogate to have a child for them should be given legal rights during pregnancy, she said.
The law proposes it happens after birth.

This could lead to hospitals not allowing the handover of the child by the birth mother to the new parents in the hospital, and there have been reports of this transfer in car parks in some cases in the UK, she said.

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Surrogacy, UK

UK – Commercial surrogacy: lifting legal restrictions is the moral thing to do to help people trying to have babies

Source The Conversation

When it comes to the controversial issue of surrogate motherhood – and, in particular, payment for such services – the law in the UK needs to be reviewed. So says Sir James Munby, the most senior judge in the Family Division in England and Wales until his retirement in 2017.

Many others including myself have been arguing this for years. It is a commonly held view – often repeated in the media – that commercial surrogate motherhood is illegal and that payment to a surrogate mother is a criminal offence. This is not the case.

Under the Surrogacy Arrangements Act (1985), it is not illegal for a couple to pay a surrogate to carry a baby for them and it is not illegal for the mother to accept payment. However, it is illegal for any other person to take or offer money in relation to surrogate motherhood.

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Same Sex, Surrogacy

Gay Singaporean man wins landmark appeal to adopt surrogate child

Source BBC

A gay Singaporean man has won a landmark court case which will allow him to adopt a child he fathered through a surrogate.

The man, 46, and his long-term partner carried out the process in the US at a cost of $200,000 (£159,000), as surrogacy is illegal in Singapore.

He tried to legally adopt the child but the bid was rejected last year, leaving him with no legal parental rights.

Same-sex marriages are not recognised in Singapore and gay sex is illegal.

The four-year-old child is considered illegitimate in the eyes of the law as the surrogate mother and biological father are not married.

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Surrogacy

The Threat That Surrogate Parents May Pose to Children’s Well-Being

Source Daily Signal

A “permanent link” between biological parents and their children matters, medical ethicist Melissa Moschella says, calling it something “so deep that we can’t forget about the importance for children.” (Photo: PBNJ Productions/Blend Images/Newscom)

Children’s needs should come before adult desires in marriage and other domestic partnerships, advocates of children’s rights argue.

For starters, it’s good for a child to know who his mother and father are, college professor Melissa Moschella said at a recent event focused on surrogate pregnancies held at The Heritage Foundation’s headquarters on Capitol Hill.

“Knowing our biological origins helps to make sense of who we are. And those who don’t know their biological origins, or don’t have a relationship with those who kind of connect them to their biological origins, are lacking in something important,” Moschella said.

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