Source: MyNewsLA
This story has it all – a same-sex couple, a court battle over immigration, baby twins and even a tie to the federal government shutdown at the start of the week.
Lawyers for a Los Angeles-based same-sex couple have filed suit against the federal government, alleging that the U.S. State Department is discriminating against them by denying birthright citizenship to one of their twin sons.
Source: Daily Mail
A selfless mother has become a surrogate for a gay couple for the second time, and delivered the baby free of charge in what she describes as a ‘BOGOF’ deal.
Becky Harris, 30, from Suffolk, carried a daughter for two businessmen from the south of England in 2012 and on January 8 she delivered the couple’s second baby.
Source: BioNews
Details of Ireland’s proposed Assisted Human Reproduction Bill were revealed in a meeting of the Oireachtas Health Committee.
Ireland currently has no legislation governing assisted reproduction. The bill aims to provide comprehensive regulation across all aspects of assisted reproduction and establish an Assisted Human Reproduction Regulatory Authority to make ongoing decisions, explained the Department of Health’s chief medical officer Dr Tony Holohan.
Source: BioEdge
A gay couple has created a conundrum for the Singaporean government by attempting to adopt a child born of an American surrogate mother. The two unnamed men, both Chinese, aged 45 with high salaries, paid a California woman US$200,000 to provide an egg and to gestate a baby, who was born in 2013.
Source: Hindustan Times
The demand for surrogacy in India was so high that it made way for professional surrogacy agencies to enter the market as foreigners thronged accommodating IVF clinics, wanting a child. The market came under severe criticism for exploiting the surrogates, among other things.
Anindita Majumdar’s Transnational Commercial Surrogacy and the (Un) Making of Kin in India takes on this controversial subject via case studies, introducing readers to various stakeholders in the business that she has interacted with, without identifying them.
Source: Romper
Long before we hit the “your baby can now hear” stage in pregnancy, my husband Dan began having nightly chats with my belly, listing the reasons he was excited to meet our daughter or telling her about her cool mom. It was their way of bonding given that Dan couldn’t do it the same way that I could — you know, the whole me-carrying-a-baby-in-my-womb part. It made me wonder about parents who go about having children in less traditional ways, like through surrogacy. Were there tips for how to bond with your baby if they’re born via surrogacy? Surely, I thought, you can establish a special connection in ways that extend beyond the act of physically carrying a child.
Source: Romper
With all of the fervor surrounding the possibilities that Kylie Jenner is actually Kim Kardashian West’s surrogate, much online chatter has revolved around the process of surrogacy. It’s a complicated process with a lot of potential landmines both ethically and legally. However, in the case of sibling surrogacy, it seems as though it should be easier as there is already a familial bond present. However, that might not always be the case. It begs the question, can you be a surrogate for your sister? What would that mean?
Source: Manning River Times
Source: Women’s Health
Source: Independent
I first looked into surrogacy about 20 years ago, purely by chance. I initially wanted to pursue egg donation – I’d finished my own family and at just 21 it felt like such a waste of my fertility.
However, upon researching egg donation I realised that I would have to act anonymously. I was disappointed, as I very much wanted to know what would happen with my eggs, who they were passed on to, and details about the child that may possibly be born.
Source: BBC
Reality TV star Kim Kardashian West and her husband Kanye West have announced the birth of their third child – a baby girl delivered by a surrogate. Her surrogate had made their “dreams come true with the greatest gift one could give”, she said.
One woman who knows exactly what it is like to give that gift is Laura Mott, a 31-year-old from Essex, who acted as a surrogate mum last year.
On 5 February, she gave birth to a 6lb 14 oz baby girl. Moments later, the baby was in the arms of her intended mother, Melissa.
Source: BBC
A woman who has been a surrogate mother four times says “urgent changes” are needed to surrogacy law.
Sarah Jones from Epworth, Lincolnshire, backed by MP for Brigg and Goole Andrew Percy, said current laws, set up in the 1980s, are “outdated and inadequate”.
Surrogacy is when a woman becomes pregnant with the intention of giving the child to its parents after birth.
Source: San Gabriel Valley Tribune
A Woodland Hills surrogate mother who charged that the triplets she gave birth to in 2016 were endangered by their father has lost her court battle to gain custody of the children.
Melissa Cook, 49, entered into a surrogacy agreement with Chester Shannon Moore Jr., a single man in his 50s, and gave birth to triplets on Feb. 22, 2016. Their relationship soured during the pregnancy when, according to court records, he said that he wanted one aborted because of financial concerns, and Cook refused.
Source: The Strait Times
Does Singapore condone commercial surrogacy? This question is in the limelight with a court judgment on a Singaporean doctor’s bid to adopt a boy he fathered through a commercial surrogacy arrangement in the United States.
The district judge, pointing to how in-vitro fertilisation (IVF) procedures are limited to married couples under Singapore law, held last month that the doctor cannot use adoption to formalise the parent-child relationship he created through medical procedures that are not legal here.
Source: Lodi News-Sentinel
The Christmas season is all about giving unto others, and this year a Lodi woman gave the ultimate gift of parenthood to a family in London.
On Nov. 20, Holly Marie Baker gave birth to their twins, a boy and a girl, after serving as their surrogate mother.
Ever since high school, Baker said she always wanted to be a surrogate. While doing some research on surrogacy, she found out that she would have to give birth to her own child before she would be eligible for surrogacy. More than two years after having a child, Baker felt it was the perfect time to be a surrogate.
Source: wfaa.com
A baby boy born Thursday morning at Medical City Dallas is at the center of a custody dispute between the biological parents, the surrogate who carried the child, and now Dallas County and the state of Texas.
Attorneys for the surrogate, a woman from Collin County who’s successfully served as a surrogate twice before, said she agreed to carry the child for a couple from out of state. But at 16 weeks of pregnancy, doctors discovered the baby had a heart problem.
Source: South China Morning Post
Out of the three bedrooms in Noel’s home, two have been dedicated to the four-year-old — one for sleeping, the other for toys. There are a lot of toys, mostly gifts from family and friends. Noel is very much the apple of his parents’ eyes, and the extended family’s too. Both sides of the family gather every few weeks in Noel’s home, humouring him with endless games of hide and seek in the 1,450 sq ft apartment.
Source: KBTX-TV
A Washington County mother gave a special Christmas gift this past week.
She served as a surrogate for friends wanting to start a family. The babies came early.
“It wasn’t how we planned it. I was supposed to have a Caesarean,” said Nasreen Stump, the surrogate mother.
Last Tuesday morning, her water broke.
Nasreen’s husband, Greg, was working that morning. He’s a Washington County EMS Paramedic.
Source: Leader-Telegram
Mayo Clinic Health System delivered the first baby of 2018 early Monday in Eau Claire as parents Christine Ravago and her husband, Simon Bone, of Severna Park, Md., sped across the country to be there for the birth of their son.
Ravago and Bone have been trying to have a child for years without success. According to a Mayo news release, the pair were connected with surrogate mother Alyssa Johnson of Eau Claire over a year ago, which paved the way for their son Sterling’s arrival.
Born at 7 pounds and 20½ inches, baby Sterling was born at 8:43 a.m. via cesarean section. The baby arrived 20 days before his due date after high blood pressure concerns sent Johnson into an early delivery.
