Category: Surrogate Mother

Donor Eggs, Donor Embryos, Egg Donation, Egg Donor, Embryo, Gay Parenting, Gestational surrogacy, Same Sex, Surrogacy, Surrogate Mother

3 Questions Queer People Should Ask Before Growing Our Families

Intended Parents

Source: Forbes

Traditional methods aren’t typically available for queer people to grow their families, and growing families non-traditionally can be expensive. What are the options and costs for queer couples and individuals to consider when family planning?

3 Questions Queer People Should Ask Before Growing Our Families – photo by Shutterstock

The cost to raise a child from birth to 18 years old, not including family planning or college, is estimated by the USDA to be about $245,340. For many LGBT families, this is the minimum cost. This is why lack of financial planning when family planning could put queer families at financial risk.

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Cancer, Embryo Freezing, Gestational surrogacy, Infertility, Surrogate Mother, UK

Selfless surrogate delivers her own niece after her sister was diagnosed with breast cancer months after dream wedding despite having no symptoms

Intended Parents

Source: Daily Mail

Randi Fishman was 28, newly married, and ready to start a family when she was diagnosed with breast cancer in October 2011.

The crushing news was made all the more painful when her Maryland doctors said that, even if she overcame the disease, carrying children could be a risk that could cost Randi her life.

She immediately got her eggs frozen, and along with husband Zach, then also 28, started the lengthy and expensive process to find a surrogate to carry their embryos fertilized by IVF.

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Embryo, Gestational surrogacy, Infertility, Jewish, Surrogacy, Surrogate Mother

One Woman’s Body, Another Woman’s Baby

Intended Parents

Source: Jewish Journal

A large chalkboard in the kitchen of the Sherman Oaks home of Sam and Rachel Simkin proclaims, “Please excuse the mess, we are making memories.” Those memories are being made with their children: Jonah, 9, Penina, 7, Vered, 4, and their 12-year-old golden retriever, Nagy.

Rachel, 38, is finishing pumping breast milk for the fourth baby she gave birth to in November. He was nicknamed “Baby G” while in utero. However, he is not the Simkins’ son. Rachel was a gestational surrogate, implanted with an embryo created via in vitro fertilization with Mr. and Mrs. G’s egg and sperm.

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Adoption, Gestational carrier agreements, Gestational surrogacy, intended parents, Law, Surrogacy, Surrogacy Law, Surrogate Mother

Racism, Blackmail, And Death: Iowa Supreme Court Makes Pro-Surrogacy Ruling In Tumultuous Case

Intended Parents

Source: Above The Law

Let’s count this as an important half-victory for securing the rights of intended parents to enter into valid surrogacy agreements.

Last week, the Iowa Supreme Court ruled in favor of the intended parents in a surrogacy arrangement gone wildly wrong. The judgment finally secured the parental rights of an intended parent who was also the genetic father of the baby. The case also set a valuable precedent for enforcing surrogacy contracts in Iowa. Intended parents and gestational surrogates — as well as fertility doctors and assisted reproductive technology attorneys in the Hawkeye state — can all celebrate the new certainty and dependability of many of these arrangements. However, the decision left open the possibility that some parents may be left out in the bitter Iowa cold.

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New Zealand, Surrogacy, Surrogate Mother

New Zealand – Toni Street: How I explained surrogacy to my girls 

Intended Parents

Source: NZ Herald

Telling your kids that they’re about to get a younger sibling can be tricky at the best of times.

But having to explain that their baby brother will be born via surrogate has made for an added twist for The Hits host Toni Street to navigate.

Street – who announced she will have her third child with the help of her best friend Sophie Braggins – says she decided to “keep it really simple” when breaking the news to her daughters, Juliette, 5, and Mackenzie, 2.

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compensation, New Zealand, Surrogacy, Surrogacy Law, Surrogate Mother

New Zealand – Calls for surrogates to be compensated – as Toni Street announces baby news

Intended Parents

Source:  NZ Herald

A leading surrogacy lawyer and doctor have called for a law change to allow compensation to be paid to women who bear a baby for someone else.

Broadcaster Toni Street last night went public on how she and her husband Matt France’s third child is being carried by a surrogate – Street’s best friend Sophie Braggins.

The couple turned to a surrogate after Street was diagnosed with a rare and incurable auto-immune condition shortly after she gave birth to Mackenzie in mid-2015.

Zandra Wackenier, who has represented surrogate mothers and “intending parents” in dozens of applications to authorities, says she supports a continuation of commercial surrogacy in New Zealand, but she also believes surrogates should be compensated for their out-of-pocket expenses.

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Infertility, intended parents, New Zealand, Surrogacy, Surrogacy Law, Surrogate Mother

New Zealand – Baby joy for Toni Street – via surrogacy

Intended Parents

Source:  New Zealand Herald

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Toni Street and her best mate Sophie Braggins. Braggins is acting as Street’s surrogate and carrying her third child, due in August.

Broadcaster Toni Street and her husband are expecting their third child – this time via a surrogate mother.

Street has opened up on the happy family news for her and husband Matt France and also spoken of the serious health battle that has required them to use a surrogate – Street’s best friend Sophie Braggins – to add to their current family of two young daughters.

Street – a co-host of the The Hits’ popular morning radio show – and France will welcome a baby boy into their family in August.

They have gone public as a rising number of Kiwi families face a range of fertility issues, with some looking at the option of investigating surrogacy.

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Infertility, intended parents, Surrogacy, Surrogacy Law, Surrogate Mother

Supreme Court says contracts with surrogate mothers are legal

Intended Parents

Source: RadioIowa

State-Judicial-Building
The state Judicial Building.

The Iowa Supreme Court rules that contracts made with surrogate mothers are legal in the state.

The case involves a couple from Cedar Rapids who were nearing 50 years old when they married in 2013 and decided they wanted to have a child. They placed an online ad in 2015 and signed an agreement to have the Muscatine woman serve as the surrogate mother. Both embryos implanted in the surrogate mother took hold — but the twins were born prematurely and one died.

The surrogate mother then refused to give up the surviving baby, saying the surrogate contract was not legal in Iowa. The district court, after genetic testing, ruled the contract is enforceable, terminated the parental rights of the surrogate mother and her husband, and awarded the Cedar Rapids man permanent legal and physical custody.

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Gestational surrogacy, intended parents, Surrogacy, Surrogacy Law, Surrogate Mother

Iowa Supreme Court to Rule Friday on Landmark Surrogate Case

Intended Parents

Source: WHOTV

DES MOINES, IOWA — Surrogate rights in Iowa have fallen under the microscope.

“Genetically, it is not her child, it is a child with genes of other people she agreed to carry,” said Iowa Supreme Court Justice Thomas Waterman.

In January of 2016, Paul and Chantele Montover entered an agreement in Linn County for a surrogate to carry their child but surrender custody immediately upon birth.

“We decided to not use an agency, but our clinic gave us several websites of people advertising to be surrogates,” said Chantele.

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Egg Donor, Same Sex, Surrogacy, Surrogate Mother

UK – Catholic group attacks Tom Daley for ‘depriving’ baby of mother

Intended Parents

Source: PinkNews

(Photo by Charlie Crowhurst/Getty Images)

Current AffairsCatholic group attacks Tom Daley for ‘depriving’ baby of mother

A Catholic group has lashed out at gay Olympic hero Tom Daley – for having a baby.

Daley, 23, revealed this week that his expecting a baby with his Oscar-winning husband Dustin Lance Black, 43.

It is believed that the pair are having the child via surrogate, posting a selfie with an ultrasound scan.

The high-profile gay couple’s decision to start a family has led to a tidal wave of homophobic comments.

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Law, Same Sex, Sperm Donation, Sperm Donor, Surrogacy, Surrogacy Law, Surrogate Mother

‘My wife and my son are my family… but right now it’s like she doesn’t even exist’

Intended Parents

Source: Her

Sarah and her wife, Geraldine, welcomed their gorgeous baby boy, Lochlan, in November.

Now three-and-a-half months old, their son is – of course – the apple of his parents’ eyes.l

Born at healthy 10lbs 4oz, it’s understandably been a blissful time for the Stone McDevitt family.

However, in the midst of their happiness is a pretty significant upset: despite being a married couple and co-parents, Ger’s name is notably absent from Lochlan’s birth cert.

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Surrogacy, Surrogacy Law, Surrogate Mother

What is surrogacy?

Intended Parents

Kim and Kanye are the latest celebrity couple to have a baby using a surrogate. They join the likes of Nicole Kidman, Tyra Banks, and Elton John and his partner David Furnish, who have all turned to surrogacy to have children.

It’s not just high-profile couples who are using a surrogate to help them start or add to their families. According to Surrogacy UK on average 10 children are born through surrogacy each week.

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India, IVF, Semen, Sperm Donor, Surrogacy, Surrogate Mother

India – Using late son’s preserved semen, couple gets twin grandkids through IVF, surrogacy

Intended Parents

Source: Nyooz

Pune: The parents of a 27-year-old man, who died of brain tumour two years ago, used their unmarried son’s cryopreserved semen extracted long before his death to have grandchildren. Fusing the semen with eggs of a matching donor, doctors created embryos and transferred them into a surrogate mother’s womb.

The woman, who incidentally is the man’s aunt, delivered healthy twin baby boys two days ago. Experts, however, have raised questions about the ethics behind the procedure. The man was diagnosed with brain tumour in 2013 while pursuing higher education in Germany.

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Surrogacy, Surrogacy Law, Surrogate Mother, Ukraine

The reasons behind the surrogacy boom in Ukraine

Intended Parents

Source: NewsByte

Ukraine is in news again but for reasons apolitical. The European nation has become the go-to place for people wanting to have children via surrogacy.

Despite regional, cultural and bureaucratic barriers, what unites prospective parents and surrogate mothers is desperate need. One party needs a child, the other, money.

Here, we look at how surrogacy is making a few dreams come true in Ukraine.

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Surrogacy, Surrogacy Law, Surrogate Mother

Surrogate mothers could be paid more than their expenses under Senate bill

Intended Parents

Source: The Witachee Times

SPOKANE —Surrogate mothers could be paid for carrying a child for another couple under a bill that passed the Senate despite criticism that it could turn babies into “commodities like a bushel of wheat or widgets.”

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Surrogacy, Surrogacy Law, Surrogate Mother, Ukraine

Ukraine Has Unintentionally Become A Hotbed For Surrogacy Tourism

Intended Parents

Source: Grazia

© Shutterstock

Finding a surrogate in the UK can be a difficult pursuit, with laws around surrogacy giving the majority of rights to the surrogate. Legal contracts cannot be enforced, and surrogates cannot be paid except for reasonable expenses, which means that upon having the baby the surrogate has full maternal rights to the child even if she has no biological connection to it. With surrogacy legislation so complicated in the UK, many couples choose to go abroad to look for a surrogate.

While surrogacy tourism has been banned in India, Nepal and Thailand – former hotspots for the industry – amidst exploitation claims, other countries have slowly popped up to take their place. One surprising example is Ukraine, where a series of liberal laws has unintentionally created a thriving surrogacy industry.

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Surrogacy, Surrogacy Law, Surrogate Mother

The Ethics of a Surrogate Mother: What is Surrogacy’s Social Responsibility?

Intended Parents

Source: Buffalow Business First

The Ethics of a Surrogate Mother: What is Surrogacy’s Social Responsibility? Gestational Surrogates earn more than most new teachers in the US — so why call them victims? William Houghton, director of Sensible Surrogacy, presents the pro-surrogacy perspective in a new interview.

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Law, Surrogacy, Surrogacy Law, Surrogate Mother

SB126: Bill to limit surrogate births stalls in committee

Intended Parents

Source: The Daily Universe

SALT LAKE CITY — Lawmakers appeared to be swayed by Utah families — many with babes in arms — who urged lawmakers to reject changes to Utah’s surrogate birth laws. SB126, which would repeal protections and requirements for surrogate births in Utah, was stalled in committee on Feb. 7 The bill’s sponsor, Sen. Lyle Hillyard, R-Logan, sponsored legislation passed in 2005 making surrogate birth legal in Utah under certain conditions. Hillyard is sponsoring SB126 to repeal specifications and protections for surrogate births.

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Europe, Surrogacy, Surrogacy Law, Surrogate Mother

Surrogacy convention – let’s not forget human rights are for all

Intended Parents

Source:  Euractiv

A photo made available on 08 August 2014 shows Thai nannies holding nine suspected surrogate babies after a police raid at a residential apartment on 5 August 2014. [EPA/STR]
An international conference is currently trying to regulate surrogacy, a global business estimated to be worth roughly $5 billion a year, and the EU should weigh in on the ongoing negotiations and make all efforts to condemn and limit the practice whose principal victims are children, writes Sophia Kuby.

Sophia Kuby is the director of EU advocacy at ADF International.

Surrogacy agencies, clinics, lawyers, and medical doctors cash in on the business of selling sperm and egg cells, creating embryos in vitro, implanting them into a woman’s hired womb and providing the “commissioning parents” with a baby.

The Hague Conference on Private International Law, an intergovernmental institution comprising 82 members, including all EU member states and the EU itself, has stepped into the ethical and legal quagmire created by this business.

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Law, Surrogacy, Surrogacy Law, Surrogate Mother

Senator aims to repeal legal protections for surrogate births

Intended Parents

Source:  St George News

With the issue now before the Utah Supreme Court of whether or not gay men should have the right to the same legal protections in surrogate birth arrangements as others have under Utah law, one senator wants to end those protections, at least for now, for all couples in order to keep a promise he made 13 years ago.

Sen. Lyle Hillyard, R-Logan, is seeking to pass a bill that would end legal protections for surrogate births | Profile photo via senate.utah.gov, St. George News Sen. Lyle Hillyard, R-Logan, is sponsoring a bill, designated SB 126, that would repeal Utah law on gestational agreements, law that came from a bill he sponsored in 2005.

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