Source BBC News
A married gay couple from Devon say they have the right to have a child of their own, “despite their sexuality”.
Darren and Ben Tudor-Green have been speaking out after Tom Daley and husband Dustin Lance Black received abuse after their baby announcement.
“Some people’s mentality leaves a lot to be desired,” said Darren. “This is about creating life. It shouldn’t matter what sexuality you are.”
The couple are using a surrogate mother called Mel from the north of England.
Source Above The Law
Washingtonians should pop the champagne bottles and celebrate — unless you are already trying to become pregnant as a surrogate.
In the last few years, several countries have either banned or severely limited access to surrogacy. These laws often come on the heels of some crazy surrogacy scandals, including the Japanese man with the 13 surro-babies, or the twin baby left behind in Thailand. Fortunately, the United States has gone the other direction. Last year, Washington, D.C. reversed its prior law that actually made surrogacy a criminal offense, and instead passed a comprehensive new statute that permits and provides safeguards around surrogacy arrangements. The statute permits both the more popular type, known as gestational surrogacy — that’s where the surrogate isn’t genetically related to the child being carried — as well as the less common form of surrogacy, now called “genetic” surrogacy — previously known as “traditional” surrogacy — where the surrogate is also genetically related to the child.
Source: Metro.co.uk
A grandmother enjoyed being pregnant so much that she decided to become a surrogate mum in her 50s. Sue Fisher is thought to be the oldest woman in the UK to become a surrogate for strangers.
After a divorce from her husband of 30 years and with her children grown up, Sue, now 55, decided she wanted to help another couple experience the joy of childbirth. Despite initially worrying that no one would pick her due to her age, she clicked with a gay couple desperate to have kids.
Source: Care HQ
While surrogacy isn’t necessarily commonplace, celebrities like Kim Kardashian and Tyra Banks have been candid about their experiences, helping to make it a more normal part of motherhood conversations. And since many new moms choose to breastfeed their babies for both the many benefits and bonding experience, it’s normal to wonder if it’s even possible for the moms who haven’t actually given birth. So, can they?
Source: Mirror
Online pals Elouise King and Jenny Robinson were nervous about their first face-to-face meeting – yet it would seal the mother of all friendships.
The pair had exchanged messages on a surrogacy forum but didn’t know if they would click in person.
That first meeting was in a pub. Fitting really, for just 18 months later they would be wetting the baby’s head not once, but twice, after Jen gave birth to Elouise and hubby Paul’s TWINS .
Source: Evening Standard
Women who become mothers via a surrogate are being taught how to breastfeed their baby in a pioneering London initiative.
Justine White, a breastfeeding adviser, has helped three women to feed — even though they had not given birth.
She was inspired by tribesmen in the Congo who allow babies to suck on their nipples to comfort them while the mothers hunt.
Enabling women who have not given birth to breastfeed is practised in North America but is not widely known about in this country.
Source: Yahoo Finance
According to the Ministry of Health (MOH), surrogacy refers to the arrangement where “a woman is artificially impregnated, whether for monetary compensation or not, with the intention that the child is to be the social child of some other person or couple”.
Commercial surrogacy often involves a fee paid to the surrogate mother. By hiring a surrogate mother, you are essentially hiring a woman to carry and deliver a child for you.
Source: The Times
A married couple in a sexless marriage because one of them is gay have been given the go ahead to be joint parents to a surrogate baby.
Britain’s leading Family Court judge, Sir James Munby, said it did not matter that the marriage was “platonic” or that they had separate homes.
Source: Lexology
With more people facing fertility issues and couples increasingly seeking alternative routes to have children, there is a growing number of UK families created through surrogacy.
In the last three years, the number of children being born through surrogacy has almost tripled according to figures from the Ministry of Justice Family Court.
Surrogacy is no longer a taboo – along with adoption it has become an accepted alternative to traditional child birth. It has even recently featured in the Archers on Radio 4 and has been put into the headlines by Kim Kardashian and Kanye West who have recently used a surrogate to have their baby, Chicago.
Source: 9 News
It’s the ultimate gift – bringing a baby into the world through surrogacy.
However, in Western Australia, only 10 babies have been born through a surrogate in the last decade because the state’s laws are so tough.
The process often takes up to a year and costs roughly $80,000.
That makes Robina and her husband Ryan’s one year old son, Raphael, a rare baby.
Source: Idaho Press-Tribune
Andrea Friesen of Nampa said three of the hardest phone calls she’s ever had to make were to call her younger sister, Kim Richardson, each time she got pregnant.
Friesen had three successful pregnancies. During those years, Richardson and her husband, Casey, longed to have children but faced painful infertility hurdles and miscarriages.
“It’s hard to see these guys want that so badly and try and not get that — when it has been so easy for me,” Friesen said.
So, Friesen and her husband, Dan, made a proposal: What if Andrea carried the baby for Kim and Casey?
Source: Daily Record
Natasha Hutcheon and her childhood sweetheart will finally become parents after colleague Katie Beardal agreed to be their surrogate.
It was a dream they feared would never be realised after a series of heartbreaking setbacks.
But now a couple will finally become parents after a work colleague agreed to be a surrogate mum.
Natasha Hutcheon and childhood sweetheart Peter Walker, both 31, have dreamed of having a baby together since they met as teenagers.
They thought their hopes were dashed when Natasha discovered she was unable to have children.
Now, after 89 hospital visits and two miscarriages in eight years, Natasha’s co-worker Katie Beardal is expecting their baby in September.
Source: Vision PRWeb
Same-sex couples who are considering gay surrogacy to conceive their families should examine the serious risks of unregulated programs overseas, said Bill Houghton, founder of the Sensible Surrogacy Guide.
As same-sex couples increasingly look for options to conceive children, many are choosing programs in countries without basic protections, according to Bill Houghton, founder of the Sensible Surrogacy Guide. Some destinations popular with gay couples have no specific legislation on surrogacy. This opens the door to unregulated programs with serious risks.
Source: The Health Site
The last two decades have been revolutionary in terms of fertility management and triumphing challenges posed by infertility. To the couple experiencing difficulty in getting pregnant, there is plenty of hope today. It is not a lost battle like it was in the past. Besides, almost every hurdle can be overcome with the help of scientific and technologically advanced options. For example, a woman without a uterus can still have her own child by borrowing another’s womb! This makes experts believe that every woman how chooses to become pregnant can be blessed.
Source: Scoop World
Children risk being “commodities” as surrogacy spreads, UN rights expert warns
GENEVA (6 March 2018) – Children face becoming commodities as surrogacy arrangements become more prevalent, and urgent action is needed to protect their rights, the UN Special Rapporteur on the sale and sexual exploitation of children has warned.
“There is no right to have a child under international law,” said Maud de Boer-Buquicchio, who presented a report to the Human Rights Council in Geneva. “Children are not goods or services that the State can guarantee or provide. They are human beings with rights.
Source: BioEdge
The UK’s Department for Health and Social Care has released new guidelines advising that children born via surrogacy be told of their origins.
The guidelines, released last Wednesday, are intended to “ensure LGBTQ+ individuals are given equal care, and that all surrogates and intended parents are treated with due dignity and respect”. The document states:
Research suggests that openness, confidence and transparency about a child’s origins from an early age (pre-school) is the best way to talk to children about their identity and origins. Your fertility counsellor should have given you the opportunity to explore how you feel about telling a child about their origins, and fertility counsellors would be happy to help you reach a decision about this at any time, as your thoughts and feelings about if, when and how to do this may change over time.
Source BioNews
Appeared in BioNews 940
Government guidance has been issued for couples considering surrogacy in England and Wales, for the first time.
Two sets of guidelines have been released, one for surrogates and intended parents, and the other for healthcare professionals working with them.
Couples planning to enter into an agreement with a surrogate are recommended to use written agreements covering conception, expenses and any planned relationship between the surrogate and the child. They are also encouraged to use established surrogacy organisations in the UK to find a surrogate, rather than travelling abroad to clinics or using informal arrangements.
Source: Gulf News
Actress Sunny Leone on Monday surprised everyone by announcing the birth of her sons Noah and Asher via surrogacy.
She had adopted a girl, Nisha, in 2017.
Leone took to Twitter to post a picture of herself along with husband Daniel Weber and their three children.
Leone captioned it: “God’s plan! June 21st, 2017 was the day Daniel and I found out that we might possibly be having three children within a short amount of time. We planned and tried to have a family and after so many years [our] family is now complete with Asher Singh Weber, Noah Singh Weber and Nisha Kaur Weber.”
