Surrogacy, Thailand

Thailand – Surrogacy Law in the Kingdom long overdue

Source Khmer Times

A long overdue law on surrogacy will finally be enacted this year since it was drafted in 2017. Banning surrogacy, which is already prohibited in Thailand, is aimed at ending a lucrative business that is linked to human trafficking targeting women from low-income families.

Last week, Phnom Penh Municipal Court sentenced Chinese national Liu Qiang and four Cambodian women under human trafficking laws over their involvement in commercial surrogacy. While Qiang was sentenced to seven years in prison for two counts of human trafficking, the four women were handed three to five years of imprisonment.

The case marks the latest association of surrogacy with human trafficking in the Kingdom as the draft law on surrogacy finally sees light this year since its inception on February 2017. As discussions on the draft law begin, several NGOs have expressed concern about the matter.

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Surrogacy

Fargo woman giving birth to baby for Chinese family during pandemic

Source Valley News Live

A Fargo woman is having a baby next week–there’s just one problem.

The baby belongs to a family on the other side of the globe.

“I’m a gestational carrier and the intended parents of the baby are Chinese, living in China,” she says.

The Chinese family has been trying to have a child of their own for nearly a decade.

The day they’ve all been waiting for is fast approaching.

“To get this close, within months of being able to meet him, and then not being able to get here is awful.”

The coronavirus pandemic has not only made it tough but nearly impossible, to get into the U.S.
Meaning the family will not be able to get here in time for their child’s birth.

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Coronavirus, COVID-19, Surrogacy

CORONAVIRUS HURTING FERTILITY CLINICS …Crushing Foreigners’ Baby Dreams

Source TMZ

Restrictions on fertility procedures, coupled with a freeze on foreign travel due to the coronavirus, are drying up a bankable swath of the baby-making business … TMZ has learned.

Right now, fresh or frozen embryo transfers, in vitro fertilization and pretty much all elective surgeries are being scrapped as U.S. fertility clinics follow guidelines released by the American Society for Reproductive Medicine.

A rep there tells us, the financial pain is being felt industrywide … but even more so with clinics relying heavily on international clientele.

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New York, Surrogacy

New York state, long a holdout against legalizing surrogacy, overturns ban

Source NBC News

New York state is overturning its long-held ban on paid surrogacy, “a bright spot for New York families in these difficult times,” said the co-sponsor of the bill.

The legislation was approved Thursday and was one of many non-fiscal measures included in the state budget passed amid the coronavirus pandemic, which has hit New York harder than any state in the United States. The budget included a grim prediction for the effects of the coronavirus, with state tax revenues estimated to fall by at least $10 billion.

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Surrogacy

New York State Legalizes Gestational Surrogacy

Source Gay City News

A protracted battle over the future of compensated gestational surrogacy in New York was resolved on April 2 when state lawmakers approved a budget that included legislation proposed by out gay Manhattan State Senator Brad Hoylman and Westchester Assemblymember Amy Paulin that legalizes the practice once and for all.

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Surrogacy

Not ‘mothers’ but ‘egg donors’: Why are surrogates treated as if they don’t exist?

Source Live Action

Lance Bass and his partner (Bass is best known for his role as a member of boy band NSYNC) have been trying to start a family. Like many celebrities and wealthy individuals, they turned to surrogacy. Unfortunately, in this case and in many others, the women who actually carry babies as surrogates are treated as practically invisible.

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Surrogacy

COVID-19, Surrogacy and Birthing Alone

Source Above The Law

Extreme times call for extreme measures. That’s true in any crisis, but especially right now, when hospitals and medical professionals are doing everything they can to keep up with the exponentially increasing cases of COVID-19 until we manage to flatten the curve. The struggle has meant new policies and measures to keep patients and medical personnel as safe as possible.

Of course, there are other medical needs right now besides treating COVID-19 patients. Just like before, a lot of people are giving birth to babies! On that front, the COVID-19 measures have been, for some, terrifying and traumatizing. A number of hospitals have taken to banning all nonmedical providers in the delivery room, aside from the person actually giving birth -– meaning that not even a spouse or partner is allowed in. (Stories like this one of a man hiding symptoms before entering the hospital to be with his delivering wife, and then likely infecting her, are not helping!) And when it’s a surrogacy birth, hospital policies may also prevent the intended or genetic parents — the people who will actually raise the child – from being there for the birth of their child, the summit of their fertility journey

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COVID-19, Surrogacy

How Coronavirus Is Affecting Surrogacy, Foster Care and Adoption

Source New York Times

The pandemic is not just impacting parents and pregnant people — all prospective parents are facing new challenges.

Covid-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus, has upended life for those who are or hope to become pregnant in the United States. Fertility doctors have indefinitely postponed all advanced fertility treatments, and some major hospitals in hard-hit areas are trying to ban partners and doulas from delivery rooms.

But the pandemic is affecting expectant parents forming families through surrogacy, foster care and adoption as well.

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France, Surrogacy

Coronavirus pandemic sows chaos in surrogacy process

Source NBC News

Ishem Sanchez and his husband, Stéphane, are expecting the birth of their baby girl any day now. After four years of navigating the complex surrogacy process, it seemed everything was finally in place — until the COVID-19 pandemic turned the world upside down.

The couple lives in Paris, but they don’t know if they’ll be allowed to leave France in time for the birth of their daughter in the United States next month, or when they will be able to take her home.

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Surrogacy, UK

UK – NHS hospital must pay for woman to have surrogate baby in America after doctors failed to spot her cervical cancer for more than four years as Supreme Court awards her £1.14m damages in landmark ruling

Source Daily Mail

A hospital must pay for the cost of a young woman’s surrogacy in America after she was left infertile because her cervical cancer was not spotted for more than four years by doctors, the Supreme Court has ruled. 

Whittington Hospital NHS Trust in London, UK, admits negligently failing to detect signs of cancer for over four years.

This negligence led to the woman, known only as XX, developing highly invasive cancer that required chemo-radiotherapy treatment, leaving her infertile at the age of 29.

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Surrogacy, UK

UK – Women left infertile due to clinical negligence could claim for surrogacy abroad following landmark ruling

Source The Telegraph

Family lawyers claim the Supreme Court ruling could pave the way for other hopeful mothers in the UK.

Women left infertile as a result of clinical negligence could be able to claim for surrogacy costs abroad following a landmark Supreme Court ruling.

A woman, who can only be legally identified as XX, has been awarded the costs of having surrogate children in America following a new ruling which family lawyers claim could pave the way for other hopeful mothers in the UK.

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COVID-19, India, Surrogacy

India – COVID-19 lockdown: NRI couple still waiting to meet baby born through surrogacy

Source Mathrubhumi

Varappuzha: A mother’s long wait carrying the dreams of two strangers in her womb has come to an end finally. But the little baby girl is still waiting for her parents having no clue when they will be able to come back. Unfortunately, the restrictions made as part of the coronavirus prevention came in the way of a family’s dream.

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Scotland, Surrogacy, UK

Scotland – Coronavirus lockdown could keep St Andrews mum from baby’s birth

Olivia Rowlands came through cancer treatment but as a result she went into the menopause

Source BBC News

A St Andrews mother-to-be could be prevented from being at the birth of her first child.

Olivia Rowlands and her husband Sam are expecting a baby girl in July.

The baby is being carried by her cousin, Ellie Hutchinson, after treatment for bowel cancer left Olivia unable to go through pregnancy.

But lockdown means many of the precious moments of the pregnancy have been experienced by video and the new parents may not be at the birth.

Olivia, 31, a primary school teacher, was diagnosed with bowel cancer in 2017, when she was 29 years old.

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Surrogacy

Coronavirus upends years of planning for international adoptions and surrogacy births


Source The Washington Post

Andrea Hoffmann’s mad dash to America began shortly after 2 a.m. on March 12 in Munich, when her husband roused her from sleep and said, “We have to get on a plane now.”

The Hoffmanns both wanted to be in Maryland for the birth of their son to a surrogate who was due in late May. But Christian Hoffmann realized their plans had to be changed after watching President Trump on television as he announced travel restrictions on Europeans to limit the spread of the novel coronavirus.

When Christian left Andrea at the Munich airport at 6 a.m., they expected he would join her in a few weeks.

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