Surrogacy

LGBT+ parents with surrogate children are being split apart during coronavirus

Source GSN

Many LGBT+ parents have to seek fertility treatment or surrogacy abroad. And COVID-19 is leaving some stranded or unable to attend their child’s birth.

In one particular case, a gay nurse fighting COVID-19 in France is worried he won’t be able to be at his child’s birth. He and his husband are expecting a little daughter in Oregon in May. But travel between France and the US is no longer possible.

The Network of European LGBTIQ Families Associations (NELFA) has shared some of the stories today.

The organization admits that the coronavirus is affecting everyone. However, it warns some rainbow families are facing additional problems’.

Read more

Ireland, Surrogacy

Gay Irish couple think new surrogacy show on Virgin Media Ireland could help older generations understand process

Source Irish Mirror

A couple who had two kids through surrogacy think a TV show could help older generations understand the process in a more positive light.

Dubliners Brendan and Gavin recently became dads for a second time, welcoming their little girl Lily with the help of the same woman who gave birth to son Theo two years ago.

Documenting their journey to fatherhood in the new Virgin Media Ireland series, Brendan said he is thankful to now live in country that is more accepting of alternative routes to parenthood.

He told the Irish Daily Mirror: “What I think this show is great for is our older generation

Read more

Surrogacy

Coronavirus Tales: We had to put our surrogacy plans on hold

Source NY Post

Natali Perilo, a 39-year-old behavior analyst in Brooklyn, and her husband, Josh, have been struggling to have a baby for 11 years. They finally lined up a surrogate — but those plans are now up in the air.

My husband and I were going to transfer our embryo in April. But now everything is on hold.

We’ve been trying to have a baby for 11 years. Josh and I got married when I was 28 and he was 32 and we wanted to start a family quickly. We tried for two years, then we went to a fertility clinic.

At 36, I started doing IVF. It really took a toll. I had a few chemical pregnancies [miscarriage before five weeks] and then a seven-week miscarriage. That was the turning point, when things felt really dark

Read more

Surrogacy

Democrats’ generational divide on gestational surrogacy

Source City and State NY

Secretary to the Governor Melissa DeRosa has been the go-to person for Gov. Andrew Cuomo on a number of issues, including a proposal in his budget this year that would legalize paid gestational surrogacy.

The proposal has divided progressive lawmakers. Some say that it is a matter of basic fairness and civil rights for couples who could otherwise not have children. But some older lawmakers in the state Senate and Assembly say they are worried that legalizing gestational surrogacy, which is legal in nearly every other state, would result in the exploitation of low-income women. These opponents blocked the bill from passing last year. 

Read more

Surrogacy

Commentary: Surrogacy bill would make New York a national leader

Source Times Union

I am a survivor of a uterine rupture that killed my son, Christopher. I had always dreamed of having a baby of my own, but because of the rupture, I am unable to carry.

Today, I am blessed to be a mother to 18-month-old Carolina. As a New Yorker, the journey to motherhood through gestational surrogacy was a long, heartbreaking and unnecessarily complicated one. New York is one of only three states to outright ban and criminalize the act of a woman carrying an embryo with which she has no genetic relationship.

Read more

India, Surrogacy

India to bring new Surrogacy Bill allowing widows and divorced women to be a surrogate mothers

Source PGURUS

India has come up with a new Surrogacy Bill which allows any “willing” woman to be a surrogate mother and proposes that widows and divorced women can also benefit from its provisions, besides infertile Indian couples. The Union Cabinet chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Feb 26 approved the Surrogacy (Regulation) Bill 2020 approving all suggestions of the Parliament’s Selection Committee.

The bill incorporates all recommendations made by a Rajya Sabha selection committee, which studied an earlier version of the draft legislation, and is aimed at banning commercial surrogacy and allowing altruistic surrogacy, said Union Ministers Prakash Javadekar and Smriti Irani briefing media about the new details of the bill.

Read more

Canada, Surrogacy

Why a lack of oversight of surrogacy in Canada leaves some parents feeling taken advantage of

Source CBC

Cuddling a child of her own was something cancer survivor Anna Camille Tucci feared might never be possible.

In 2017, the Toronto woman had a full hysterectomy as part of treatment for ovarian cancer — but not before doctors harvested her eggs and created embryos with her husband’s sperm.

“Since I can remember, I wanted kids….That’s just something that was in my heart since I was tiny,” she said. “Even the thought of not being able to carry [a baby] — that was really difficult.”

Read more
Gay Parenting, Israel, Surrogacy

Israel to allow surrogacy for gay couples and single men

Source BioEdge

Israel’s high court has struck down a law which excludes single men and gay couples from using surrogate mothers to have their children. The Knesset has a year to pass a new law.

The High Court of Justice ruled unanimously that Israel’s surrogacy laws “disproportionately violate the right to equality and the right to parenthood of these groups and are illegal.” Supreme Court President Esther Hayut  wrote with two other jusitics, “The sweeping exclusion of homosexual men from the use of surrogacy is viewed as ‘suspicious’ discrimination, suggesting that this part of the population is inferior.”

Read more