Surrogacy

‘Miracle’ Babies Born Just Weeks Apart After Mom and Her Surrogate Become Pregnant at Same Time

Source People

Andrea Valentine, of Cypress, Texas, was caught off guard when her neighbor, Tawnee Gonzalez, offered to be her surrogate after she and her husband had experienced fertility struggles.

Valentine, 39, and her husband, James Valentine, 42, had been trying for four years to have children with Valentine suffering two miscarriages. Over the years, Valentine had shared her family’s struggles with her neighbor-turned-friend Gonzales.

“As I got to know Andrea  and their struggle I wanted to help. I said, ‘If it comes down to it and you need a surrogate, I’d be willing to do it for you,’ ” Gonzalez, 35, recalls to PEOPLE. “There’s really no greater gift you can give someone than the gift of being a parent. That’s something they had wanted their entire lives.”

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Surrogacy

Spain to reject registration of babies born to surrogate mothers in Ukraine

Source Euronews

The Spanish embassy in Ukraine announced on Tuesday that the Spanish government had decided to begin rejecting registrations for babies born to surrogate mothers in Ukraine.

In the statement posted on Facebook, the embassy said that while a number of existing cases would be individually considered, “no new registration records of children born through the surrogate pregnancy technique can be authorised.”

This is not the first instance of Spanish authorities cracking down on international surrogacy.

Back in August of last year, dozens of Spanish families who had children via surrogate mothers in Ukraine were blocked from returning home for up to 10 weeks, with the Spanish government citing concerns of medical malpractice and human trafficking.

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Surrogacy

The Right Way to Legalize Surrogacy in New York

Source Gotham Gazette

New York State is on the brink of replacing an outdated and prohibitive law that criminalizes the practice of compensated surrogacy, one of only two states that does so. Legislation to reverse the law has been introduced in both houses of the state Legislature, and Governor Cuomo has demonstrated support for it by including it in his Executive Budget.

As a law professor who focuses on gender equity, I’ve taken great interest in issues related to surrogacy in the United States and abroad. I’ve closely reviewed laws in multiple states as well as internationally, and I support New York’s legalization of surrogacy.

When a woman chooses to support a couple or individual by serving as a gestational surrogate (where she is not genetically connected to the child because she did not contribute her egg), I believe she must have the autonomy to do so – provided she is protected by the law to ensure that any power imbalance between her, on the one hand, and the intended parents, surrogacy agencies and doctors, on the other hand, is mitigated

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Surrogacy

After The Surrogate Gives Birth: 20 Things That Happen When Mom Finally Steps In

Source Baby Gaga

More and more women are turning to surrogates these days. According to The American Society for Reproductive Medicine, births via surrogates have doubled over the last thirteen years. Most American surrogates earn between twenty-five and thirty-five thousand bucks for their services. Surrogates in developing nations may receive much less.

So, why are women who want to be moms more interested in surrogacy these days? There are a few key reasons. Women are having babies later in life these days. Some women take the time to establish themselves at work before they decide to become parents. When they wait, they may run into fertility issues which lead them to seek out services from surrogates. Women who’ve had very rough pregnancies, or just don’t want to carry babies for any other reason, may also make the choice to hire surrogates. Another scenario is that couples of the same gender may want to have children, and then choose surrogates to achieve their goals.

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Surrogacy

Surrogacy: ‘I gave birth to my daughter‘s baby‘

Source Hanahan Herald

A 55-year-old woman has acted as a surrogate for her daughter and given birth to her child.

Tracey Smith has a condition which means she is unable to carry a baby.

So her mother Emma Miles, from Lampeter in Ceredigion, lost six stone (38 kg) to allow her to carry baby Evie.

She was born last month – and as a review takes place, Tracey has called for a change in the law to make it easier for her to be legally named as her daughter‘s mother.

Current rules mean Emma is named on the birth certificate and Tracey faces a lengthy court process to change that.
Aged 16, Tracey was told she had Mayer-Rokitansky-Küster-Hauser syndrome (MRKH) – meaning she was born without a womb.

It took her years to come to terms with not being able to carry a child.
But her husband, Adam Smith, persuaded her to begin IVF treatment.

The process involved taking an egg from Tracey and fertilising it with sperm in a laboratory so it could be placed in a surrogate‘s womb to grow and develop.

Against the odds, it was successful at the first attempt – all she wanted now was a surrogate, and her mother offered to help.

Emma was told she would need to lose six stone (38kg) in weight before attempting treatment, so she quit her job at the local Co-op and moved to Coventry to be near her daughter.

After shedding the pounds, she successfully carried the baby before Evie Siân Emma Smith was born on 16 January 2019, weighing 7lb 7oz.

But in the eyes of the law, Evie‘s parents are Emma and her husband Robert – not Tracey and Adam.

They have begun legal proceedings for a parental order – which would see them changed to parents at the family court.

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Surrogacy

Surrogacy and me: So here we are again

Source The Times

I need a hard reset. To restore myself to the state I was in when I left the factory. All settings and data added by the loss of our surrogate, removed. I’ve felt down so much that now I’m bored of it, it’s too constant and overbearing and it makes me feel like I’m existing rather than living. So I did what any IT person worth their salt would advise if a system were down. I tried turning it off and on again.

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Surrogacy

Two miracle babies born weeks apart after woman, surrogate become pregnant at the same time

Source KHOU

CYPRESS, Texas — Infertility is more common than most people realize. According to the CDC, about 10 percent of women in the U.S. between the ages of 15 and 44 have difficulty getting pregnant or staying pregnant. 

But on Valentine’s Day, a Cypress couple showed us how their journey through infertility was paved with luck, faith, hope and the power of love.

Call it bad luck because Andrea and James, and their doctors, had no other reason as to why the couple couldn’t have a child.

Five and a half years of hormone treatments, several attempts at invitro fertilization, two miscarriages, a pulmonary embolism… and dwindling hope.
“It’s devastating to both of us… again, I was the emotional one.” said Andrea.

“James masked his emotions… to be strong for me.” she said. 

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Surrogacy, Surrogate Mother, UK

UK – ‘It’s been the greatest honor of my life’: Selfless mom becomes a surrogate for strangers MONTHS after giving birth to her own twins – having seen a friend go through a devastating miscarriage

Source Daily Mail

A selfless mother decided to become a surrogate after she witnessed the pain of her friend’s miscarriage whilst she was expecting twins herself so she can enable couples the ultimate joy of becoming parents – something she calls the ‘greatest honor’ of her life.

Tierra Nelson, 23, from Saint Cloud, Minnesota, and fiance, Marty, always knew that they wanted to be parents when the time was right and after six months of trying to conceive were delighted to find out they were expecting twins, Isabella and Claire, who were born in October 2016, weighing 6lb 11oz and 6lb 12oz at 37 weeks.

Soon after discovering she was pregnant, Tierra found out that one of her closest friends was also expecting and they were both delighted. But this delight soon turned into heartbreak as Tierra’s friend sadly suffered a miscarriage. 

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Surrogacy Law

Cuomo proposes law to end ban on surrogate moms

Source NY Post

Gov. Cuomo is proposing a new law that will lift the ban on surrogacy contracts — enabling New Yorkers for the first time to pay a woman to have a baby for them through in-vitro fertilization.

The ban has been in place since 1992.

“New York’s antiquated laws frankly are discriminatory against all couples struggling with fertility, same sex or otherwise” Cuomo said in a statement to The Post.

“This measure rights this wrong and creates a new and long-overdue path for them to start families and also provide important legal protections for the parents-to-be and the women who decide to become surrogates.”

The move comes after Cuomo and the Democratic-run state Legislature last month approved a law updating and expanding New York’s abortion rights law, angering Timothy Cardinal Dolan and the Catholic Church.

The church also opposes the legalization of commercial surrogacy as “human trafficking.”

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Gay Parenting, Surrogacy, UK

UK – Miracle Twins Each Have Different Fathers & Their Dads Wouldn’t Want It Any Other Way

Source Cafe mom

Typically, when we think of in vitro fertilization, we imagine one sperm sample that gets implanted into an egg, but for two dads from London, they are thanking modern medicine for allowing them both the opportunity to be the genetic parents of their babies — at the same time. Fathers Simon and Graeme Berney-Edwards were stunned when doctors told them that they didn’t have to choose between the two of them as to who would get to become a father first and helped them to conceive miracle twins. Both men were able to fertilize donor embryos and implant them into the same surrogate’s womb at the same time. Now, they’re sharing their story with the world to show how advancements in fertility medicine have changed their lives.
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Gay Parenting, IVF, UK

Gay male couple to be offered IVF on NHS for ‘first time in Britain’

Source Pink News

A gay couple in Scotland have been offered IVF treatment by the NHS for what is believed to be the first time in the UK.

The married couple plan to have a baby via IVF, using the sperm of one of the men and a surrogate mother to carry the child, reportsThe Mail on Sunday. The newspaper has chosen to keep the identity of the gay couple, who are married, anonymous.

The NHS will fund the IVF fertilisation process and the embryo being implanted into the surrogate mother.

The NHS has previously refused to give gay male couples the treatment because of a “blanket ban” on funding treatment that involves use of a surrogate, reports the Mail on Sunday.

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Canada, Surrogacy

Surrogacy and IVF in Canada: What you need to know

Source Toronto City News

A Toronto man’s journey to fatherhood via surrogacy in Kenya has drawn attention to the diverse ways in which people may choose to have children.

However it was also a reminder that the rules and costs around assisted reproduction may not be well known.

Here’s a look at the ins and outs of surrogacy and in vitro fertilization in Canada.

In vitro fertilization (IVF)

In Canada, IVF treatments cost about $10,000 to $15,000 per cycle on average. In some cases, the cost of fertility drugs and other tests and consultations can push that cost up to around $20,000.

Four provinces currently provide financial assistance for in vitro fertilization.

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Luxembourg, Surrogacy

Luxembourg – Court annuls decision to not grant surrogate child Luxembourgish citizenship

Source Today

In August 2016, the father of the twins was granted Luxembourgish citizenship in accordance with the 2008 legislation on naturalisation. The father then requested citizenship for his two underage children. As the man is married to another man, the now three-year-old twins were born in California through a surrogate mother.

In May 2017, Braz granted one of the twins Luxembourgish citizenship, but refused to grant the other Luxembourgish citizenship. Braz justified the move as a DNA test revealed that the Luxembourgish father was not the biological father of the second twin.

In June 2015, a court ruling in the California state court acknowledged both men as the parents of the twins. In January 2018, the parents took the issue to the Luxembourgish administrative court.

The first judge of the administrative court has remained by the ruling that the new citizenship legislation of 2017 should apply to the case, rather than the 2008 legislation. In particular, the parents are basing their claim on article 2 of the new legislation to prove that their son is eligible for citizenship.

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Surrogacy

‘The ultimate gift’: Local surrogate mother helps fulfill others’ dreams

Source WRAL

FUQUAY-VARINA, N.C. — Heidi Worthington, of Fuquay-Varina, is a pharmacist and a mother of two boys, but she has spent a lot of time pregnant.

“He knows, when mommy’s tummy gets big, that those aren’t my babies. Those aren’t our babies,” she said.

Since 2016, Worthington has carried three babies as a surrogate mother for two couples, including one set of twins.

“You have friends that struggle with infertility. You hear stories, and it is kind of heartbreaking. So, I had a desire to help and do something,” she said.

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Surrogacy, Surrogate Mother, UK

UK – Most surrogates want to give up their parental rights from BIRTH, reveals survey

Source Daily Mail

Surrogates remain the baby’s legal mother until a parental order is granted, which can take months.

But a survey has now revealed 69 per cent of surrogate mothers feel the law – which has existed since 1990 – should be changed.

Surrogacy UK, a support network, has described the law as being ‘outdated and in dire need of reform’.

The current laws are under review by the Law Commission, which is to publish its updated proposals in the coming weeks.

The survey by Surrogacy UK was conducted on 102 surrogate mothers, The Times reports.   

Only two of the women who were polled revealed they thought they should be the legal parents at birth. 

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Surrogacy, Surrogate Mother

Surrogate mother who refused abortion launches effort to change laws

Source KHOU

Stephanie Levesque was at the center of a surrogacy story that made national headlines one year ago. This is the first time she’s speaking publicly.

DALLAS — Stephanie Levesque is an ardent supporter of surrogacy because the process brought her and so many other families immense joy.
She is finally ready to talk about the pain she endured over the last year. “There’s been a lot of mourning. There’s been a lot of heartache,” she said.
On December 21, 2017, Stephanie gave birth at Medical City Dallas.
Sixteen weeks into an otherwise normal pregnancy, doctors had discovered a serious heart defect in the baby.

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Surrogacy

ANDY COHEN EMBRACES PARENTHOOD WELCOMES A BABY BOY VIA SURROGACY

Source In

Andy Cohen is finally a paa! The Emmy-winning reality television show producer, New York Times best-selling author, talk show and also a radio host welcomed his first kid via surrogacy on Monday, February 4, 2019. Cohen took to his Instagram and shared the happy news along with a monochrome photo of himself warming up his child by wrapping the newborn in his arms. Going by the shared post, Andy’s kid was born 9 pounds, 2 ounces, and 20 inches tall. Cute!

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India, Surrogacy

India – Ekta Kapoor is a Mom to a Baby Boy Via Surrogacy

Source Fit

Ekta Kapoor, the giant of Television Entertainment, is a mom to a baby boy. Following in her brother Tushar Kapoor’s footsteps, she welcomed the baby via a surrogate, reports Mumbai Mirror.

Tushar Kapoor’s son Lakshya was born in 2017. Other members of the film fraternity who have welcomed children via surrogacy include Karan Johar, Shah Rukh Khan, Lisa Ray, Sunny Leone among others.

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Spain, Surrogacy

In Spain, international adoptions plunge while surrogacy grows

Source ElPais

In a little over a decade, the number of foreign children adopted by Spanish parents has plunged from 5,541 to 531, representing a drop of more than 90%.

The effects of the economic crisis, the refusal by some countries to let same-sex couples adopt, and the long waiting times have been cited as causes for this sharp decline.

But new voices are starting to add another reason, which is hard to measure because Spain keeps no official records of it: surrogacy. While the practice is not legal in Spain, hundreds of couples are going abroad to seek the service elsewhere, in countries such as Ukraine and the United States.

“The surrogacy trend has increased in the last few years, and this rise coincides in time with a drop in international adoptions, which is relevant because surrogacy is also international,” wrote Federico de Montalvo, president of Spain’s Bioethics Committee, in a recent column published in this newspaper.

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Surrogacy, UK

Court Awards Damages To Go Do Something Illegal — To Pursue Compensated Surrogacy In A Country Where It Is Permitted

Source Above The Law

A court in England awarded a woman damages so that she could undergo surrogacy in the United States up to four times! The 35-year-old British woman, known only as “XX” in court filings in order to preserve her anonymity — possibly because she works for MI-5, we’ll never know — permanently lost her ability to conceive after the National Health Services (NHS) failed to detect her early signs of cancer. What was a “benign, treatable pre-cancerous condition” developed into malignant cancer, which spread in her body and caused permanent damage to her uterus and ovaries, among other organs.

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