Law

Commercial Surrogacy on Path to Legalization in NJ, NY, but Some Donor-Conceived Adults Oppose the Laws

Source Christian Post

Two populous states are on the path to legalizing commercial surrogacy, a move that’s drawing intense criticism from bioethicists, egg donors, donor-conceived children and pro-life advocates.

Legislation permitting the practice is being considered in New York and New Jersey, and the New Jersey bill, known as bill S482, which recently passed through both houses of the state legislature, is sitting on the desk of Democratic Gov. Phil Murphy.

New Jersey Right to Life is actively opposing the proposed legislation. If Murphy does not sign, veto or conditionally veto it by May 28, it will become law.

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Doctor using own sperm

Canada – Wrongful impregnation of patients with fertility doctors’ own sperm raises novel criminal law questions, experts say

Source The Lawyers Daily

What crime (if any) does a fertility doctor commit when he hijacks his patient’s body, including her genes, by secretly using his own sperm to impregnate her? It’s a cutting-edge — but far from clear-cut — criminal law question that arises from the misconduct of some infertility doctors prosecuted in the U.S. and in Europe who, unbeknownst to their patients, surreptitiously substituted their own sperm for that authorized by the women — and thereby produced dozens of babies who were later discovered to be the doctors’ own offspring.

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Infertility, Jamaica

Jamaica – Laws Of Eve | Legislation Is Urgently Needed To Deal With IVF

Source The Gleaner

As the number of cases involving assisted reproductive technology continues to multiply across the world, and even as some of that same technology is being utilised with increased frequency in Jamaica, we still have no legislation that deals with any aspect of it.

In my legal practice, I have been consulted by clients who have trouble conceiving and are undergoing fertility treatment, including the harvesting and storage of eggs, sperm, and embryos, surrogacy agreements and artificial insemination. In all cases, I am asked to explain the legal position in Jamaica, which begins with the admission that it is uncertain.

Many of the questions surround the ultimate ownership of the embryos in the event the couple separates after undergoing treatment, the legal recourse that is available if the surrogate changes her mind and refuses to hand over the child after delivery, whether the surrogate can be paid and how to prevent a sperm donor from claiming paternal rights in relation to a child conceived through artificial insemination.

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Parents over 60

UK – Couple aged 63 and 65 become Britain’s oldest parents using surrogate mother – only to have the child taken away by social services just one year later 

Source Daily Mail

A couple who have become Britain’s oldest parents through use of a surrogate mother at the ages of 63 and 65 are left ‘devastated’ after their baby was taken away by social services.

The parents’ age is reportedly thought to be a factor in concerns over their one-year-old’s well-being.

Social services first spoke with the couple, who are from the north of England, last year and warned them that they had to make improvements to how their child was being cared for.

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children from egg and/or sperm donor, IVF, Malta

Malta – IVF law: woman born of anonymous donor conception views concession on medical history as ‘token’

Source Independent

A woman born by anonymous donor conception, Dr Joanna Rose, views the Maltese government’s offer to allow those born through the same practice to have access to their genetic parent’s medical history as more of a “token”.

Rose is an activist who works to highlight the plight of those born by anonymous donor conception, resulting in identity issues and medical issues as a result of having incomplete access to the genetic family’s medical history.

Born in the UK, Rose went to university and after she graduated, she was awarded a scholarship to get her PhD on the subject.

Anonymous donor conception is when sperm and/or eggs are donated to an infertile woman seeking to become pregnant through IVF. Parliament is set to discuss amendments to the 2012 Embryo Protection Act which would introduce embryo freezing and tie it to anonymous embryo adoption.

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Australia, Single women, Sperm Donor

Australia – WA single mums’ search for the right donor

Source Perth Now

MORE WA women are seeking to become “single mothers by choice” by using sperm donors, with the wait list at one fertility clinic doubling in 12 months.

A nationwide sperm shortage and increased demand for donor-assisted conception have extended wait lists at Perth fertility clinics, and hundreds of women are instead seeking sperm donors through Facebook.

PIVET Medical Centre’s wait list for donor-assisted conception has doubled in 12 months.

Donor co-ordinator Anne Wigham said more women were aware of their fertility limitations and were making the decision to have a child rather than wait for a partner.

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Jewish, Surrogacy, Surrogate Mother

A surrogate mother’s ‘logical decision’ to help a couple living 3,269 miles away

Source Times Of Israel

NEWTON, Massachusetts — After giving birth to three children, Carrie Bornstein decided to take her “uterus sitting here collecting dust” and “put it to good use” for a couple she’d never met.

Until deciding to carry a child for Vivianne and David, a British-Jewish couple living in London, Bornstein had never known a surrogate mother personally. She had, however, enjoyed being pregnant with her two boys and little girl, Bornstein told The Times of Israel in an interview at her workplace outside Boston

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IVF

UK – Two Folkestone women are fundraising to have a ‘miracle’ baby which is ‘part of each of them’

Source Kent Live

Two Folkestone women are raising money for a special IVF treatment that will allow them to have a “miracle” baby which is “part of each of them”.

Sian Faye, 27, and her partner Bianca Johnson, 28, who both live in Cheriton, dream of having a child together as a sibling for nine-year-old Elsie-Mai.

Local nurse Sian: “We would love the opportunity to have a baby together, a brother or sister for Elsie-Mai.
“However this isn’t the most straight forward process in the world being both women.

“We started discussing different treatment options available about a year ago and we decided that now is the time.”

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Sperm Donor

Australia – Sperm donors grant WA single women’s motherhood wishes

Source The West Australia

Cari Warr, Hayley Hendrix and Jayme Gibson don’t know each other, but they are bound by a common thread.

Each one longed to have a child, but had reached a point in their lives where that possibility was slipping out of reach.
They had each hoped to meet a partner to embark on parenthood with, and all eventually decided to go on that journey alone using a sperm donor rather than miss out.

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Infertility

One L.A. Based Doctor is Beating the Odds, Helping Redefine Stereotypes, One Baby at a Time

Source PRNewswire

Pictured: 50 year old mom to be Paula Brody, carrying twin girls. Photo Courtesy: Lula Hyers @LulaHyers Magazine: The September Issues @TheSeptemberIssues

Under the leadership of Dr. Kumar, The Western Fertility Institute team and laboratory experts have helped thousands of people from over 20 countries achieve the dream of a family. Using cutting edge technology the staff at Western Fertility Institute is achieving some of the highest success rates in the field.

Dr. Kumar’s international following and tremendous success rates bringing twins into the world are making his patients famous! Four of Dr. Kumar’s miracle babies were recently featured in a Hollywood photoshoot for a magazine article called “The Fertility Revolution ” in The September Issues.

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Legal Parent

Australia – Father and late wife named as legal parents of baby born to surrogate

Source Yahoo News

A grieving father who is now navigating life as a single parent has finally been named on his son’s birth certificate, along with his late wife, after a surrogate gave birth to the child four months ago.

Queensland man Gareth Arena is raising his son, Rixon, on his own after tragically losing his wife, Bec, to Cystic Fibrosis in September last year.

In a glimmer of hope for the single father of one, he and his wife are now officially Rixon’s parents after applying for a parentage order in Townsville’s Supreme Court.

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Three Parent

Singapore – Debate over ethical issues of creating ‘three-parent babies’

Source The New Paper

A new method of creating “three-parent babies” has sparked discussion on whether the technology should be permitted for mainstream use.

Doctors said the risks are still unknown, while some religious groups raised concerns over the ethical issues that could arise.

Known as mitochondrial genome replacement technology, the method involves combining genetic material from a couple with that found in the egg of a female donor.
Babies born through this method would have the genetic makeup of these three people.

Last week, the Bioethics Advisory Committee launched a public consultation to discuss this technology.

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Secondary Infertility

‘You know what you’re missing’: The pain of secondary infertility is real

Source Today

Angie Prindle, seen here with son, Moses, and husband, Matt, is open about her struggles with secondary infertility.

Sometimes, when Angie Prindle is out with her 7-year-old son, Moses, moms with multiple kids complain to her about their chaotic lives and say, “You’re so lucky you only have one.”

They have no idea, Prindle says. “My mind and heart begin calculating whether I fake a smile and turn away, or unleash my saga of pregnancy loss and infertility on them.”

Prindle suffers from secondary infertility — the struggle to conceive and carry a pregnancy to term after previously giving birth. While more women are speaking openly about infertility, which affects about one of eight women, less is known about secondary infertility.
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endometriosis

Your Doctor Diagnosed You With Infertility, Now What?

Source Endometriosis Foundation of America

infertility1

For women who are diagnosed with endometriosis, and who hope to become a mother, the addition of an infertility diagnosis can be doubly devastating. Adding to that stress, choosing next steps to motherhood can be overwhelming. So, where does one begin? “Traditional OB-GYNs can examine if [patients are] ovulatory or not,” explains Dr. Karli Goldstein, an endometriosis excision specialist at Seckin Endometriosis Center. “They can do hormone testing on day two or three of their cycle, and the baseline fertility work up.” An OB-GYN may also perform a hysterosalpingogram (HSG), or a test to visualize any possible abnormalities in the uterine cavity or blockages in the fallopian tubes. Goldstein knows the process all too well. She has suffered through an infertility diagnosis stemming from Stage IV Endometriosis, and says she has explored every avenue to motherhood possible.

 

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IVF

IVF Failure Is Devastating And More Common Than You Think

Source Huffington Post

My partner and I flew from Illinois to a New York City fertility clinic in spring 2017 to thaw the 20 eggs I froze when I was 37 years old.

We felt confident we’d succeed, mainly because our doctor assured us we’d produce at least one child from my frozen eggs. And also because we’d bought into what we saw all around us in the media, like magazine covers featuring celebrities who’d given birth to twins after age 40, presumably via in vitro fertilization.

I think about this trip often, but particularly during National Infertility Awareness Week, which runs from April 22-28 this year and marks the one-year anniversary of our experience.

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IVF

How to Earn Extra Money and Save While Beating Infertility

Source Newswire

For many couples infertility treatment like IVF with donor eggs is associated with huge expenses, spending your lifetime savings, lifestyle sacrifice or even, in case of women, quitting their full-time jobs to begin treatment. However, beating infertility does not have to involve any of the above. There are methods to make the cost of IVF treatment more affordable and to earn extra money in the process.

For business-oriented people there are ways to beat infertility without straining the house budget. Infertility treatment like IVF may last from three months up to a year or even longer, depending on how many IVF cycles you are going through. This is plenty of time to think of and implement a strategy that will help you not only save money for future treatment but also create an additional income on a daily basis.

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Egg Donation

Donating eggs – a viable solution to student debt

Source Golden Gate Express

Recent USF Finance graduate Emily Burton is staying ahead of her student debt — but it isn’t through any methods she learned in her major.

In fact, she would have had better luck picking up information on her route to a biology classroom. Egg donation isn’t for everyone, but for Burton it is a viable solution to get her loans under control.
“Until I get out of student-loan debt I can’t relax,” Burton said about the motive behind her untraditional path.

The cost of “relaxing” was steep. Burton underwent rigorous testing to determine if she was a candidate — during which two companies dropped her after learning her aunt was autistic — before settling on Spring Fertility, a private fertility center in San Francisco credited for their personable and attentive approach

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compensation, Sperm Donor, Surrogate Mother

Canada – Liberal MP demands financial incentives for sperm donation, surrogacy

Source Life Site

April 25, 2018 (LifeSiteNews.com) – I suppose it makes sense that the Liberal Party of Canada, which under the reign of Trudeau the Younger has decided to style itself the champion of unrestricted abortion, would also consider exploring new frontiers in the ever-expanding territory of “reproductive rights.” This time, Liberal M.P. Anthony Housefather, with the backing of the Liberal women’s caucus, is pushing for a legal change so that surrogate mothers and sperm donors can be paid for their “services” – those services being the renting of wombs to other couples and the supply of fresh sperm to those who wish to use it for the purposes of conception. (The confusion abortion activists have about when life begins magically clears up when it comes time to create such lives in Petri dishes.)

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Same Sex, Surrogacy

The BBC is the cheerleader for same-sex surrogacy

Source Conservative Woman

Olympic diver Tom Daley and his ‘husband’ were adorned with sashes bearing the slogan ‘Daddy to be’ as they ‘celebrated the imminent arrival of their son with a baby shower’. Later Daley told the Andrew Marr Show: ‘The laws in the UK are different to the US. If a surrogate carries a baby, UK law recognises the surrogate and her partner as the parents.’ At present, the ‘commissioning couple’ has to apply for a parental order, but Daley was not asked how he would change the law. BBC Radio 5 Live also devoted a full hour to surrogacy without addressing the fact that these children are deprived of their biological mothers or fathers.

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Menopause

Woman Given 1 Percent Chance of Conceiving After Hitting Menopause at 29 Has ‘Miracle’ Babies

Source People

Chelsea Wright’s journey to motherhood was met with major roadblocks along the way.

After trying to conceive for about a year, Wright and her husband, Chris, decided to visit a fertility clinic. They were pleasantly surprised when a test result showed that Wright was actually pregnant. Unfortunately, she would go on to miscarry, and have two more back-to-back miscarriages.

It was a “brutal six months or so,” Wright, tells PEOPLE. In search of the cause, her then doctor suggested fertility testing. “She said, ‘you’re young, you’re in your 20s, ‘let’s do some blood work and see what’s going on, but everything about you seems healthy and normal and fine.’”

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