Tag: surrogate mother

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

Tell children created through surrogacy how they were born, says first-ever Government guidance

Intended Parents

Source: The Telegraph

Parents are also warned not to enter into informal surrogacy arrangements but to use a surrogacy organisation to arrange the process, and advised not to go abroad but to use licensed clinics in the UK. CREDIT: DAVID JONES /PA

Children created through surrogacy should be told how they were born, the Government has said for the first time.

The first-ever official guidance for surrogacy arrangements says 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”.

Parents are also warned not to enter into informal surrogacy arrangements but to use a surrogacy organisation to arrange the process, and advised not to go abroad but to use licensed clinics in the UK.

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Gay baby boom, Gay Parenting, Same Sex, Surrogacy, Surrogate Mother

Gay Baby Boom Part 1 : Connecticut fertility clinics see increase in same-sex couples

Intended Parents

Source: News 8

NORWALK, Conn. (WTNH) — Marriage equality has given more same-sex couples confidence to start a family – making local fertility clinics busier than ever. News 8’s Connecticut Families begins a two part look at what’s being called a Gay Baby Boom.

“Someone’s sexuality doesn’t necessarily come into playing regards to their desire to be a parent,” says Dr. Mark Leondires.

Suddenly, 60% of his clients are prospective parents who are gay, many of them male couples.

“For a long time, being a LBGT, we worried about safety,” he explains. “Now, with almost a stamp of validation from our Supreme Court, there’s a sense of safety and you feel like you’re family is going to be safe, as well.”

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Gay baby boom, Gay Parenting, Same Sex, Surrogacy, Surrogate Mother

Gay Baby Boom Part 2: A Westport couple shares their personal fertility journey

Intended Parents

Source: News 8

NORWALK, Conn. (WTNH)–Marriage equality has given more same-sex couples the confidence to start a family, making local fertility clinics busier than ever. It’s being called a Gay Baby Boom. In Part 2 of a special series, News 8 introduces viewers to a Westport couple, sharing their personal journey to have kids.

“It was something I always did want but didn’t think it was in my realm of possibilities,” says Greg Zola. As a young, gay man, he wasn’t sure he could realize his dream of becoming a parent.

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Divorce, intended parents, Law, Same Sex, Surrogacy Law

U.S. Supreme Court rejects Tucson woman’s argument in gay marriage, child custody matter

Intended Parents

Source: Tuscan.com

The U.S. Supreme Court this morning rejected a bid by a Tucson woman arguing that gay marriages are not legally the same as others, at least when it comes to divorce.

Without comment the justices rejected a bid by Kimberly McLaughlin to deny shared custody of her biological child with Suzan McLaughlin, who she was legally married to at the time of the child’s birth.

Keith Berkshire, Kimberly McLaughlin’s attorney, acknowledged to the justices that two prior rulings had said that all marriages are entitled to the same benefits.

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Gay Parenting, Gestational surrogacy, Hysterectomy, Infertility, intended parents, Same Sex, Surrogacy, Surrogate Mother

Using a Surrogate

Intended Parents

Source: WINFertility

What You Need to Know

There are several reasons to consider using a surrogate to bear your child. Male same-sex couples who want to have a biological child often use a surrogate. Some women are unable to carry and bear a child due to cancer treatment, genetic conditions, having had a hysterectomy, or medical conditions that make it dangerous for them to get pregnant. Sometimes couples use a surrogate when other fertility treatments have not been successful for them or there are problems with the female partner’s uterus. You may have heard of celebrity couples who have used surrogates, such as Jimmy Fallon and his wife Nancy Juvonen, and Sarah Jessica Parker and Matthew Broderick. Here are some facts you need to know before you start on your journey to a family with a surrogate.

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intended parents, Ireland, Surrogacy, Surrogacy Law, Surrogate Mother

Ireland – Call for legislation to treat surrogate mothers equally

Intended Parents

Source: Connacht Tribune

A Galway City councillor has called on the Health Minister to consider introducing legislation giving surrogate mothers maternity leave so they are not treated any differently from natural or adoptive parents.

Fine Gael Cllr Padraig Conneely said he is aware of several couples in Galway who have become parents through a surrogacy arrangement abroad.

Surrogacy is a way for a childless couple or individual to have a child, with a surrogate mother carrying the child. The surrogate mother agrees to be artificially inseminated or to have an embryo transferred to her womb in order to become pregnant. She then carries the child to term with the intention of giving custody of the child to the “commissioning” person or couple.

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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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Sperm Donor

For gay parents, first comes the baby — then comes the debt

Intended Parents

Source: NBCNews

There are more options than ever for same-sex couples looking to expand their families, but it’s not a simple — or affordable — endeavor for many.

Oscar-winning screenwriter Dustin Lance Black and his husband, British Olympic diver Tom Daley, announced on Valentine’s Day that they’re expecting their first child. But while there are more options than ever for same-sex couples looking to expand their families, it’s not a simple — or affordable — endeavor for many.

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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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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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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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Surrogacy, Surrogacy Law

Calling for a Radical Change of Perspective on Surrogate Motherhood

Intended Parents

Source: The Center for Bioethics and Culture

23 NGOs (including The Center for Bioethics and Culture) from eight countries and two international networks (including the #StopSurrogacyNow Coalition) have issued a renewed call to the members of the Experts’ Group of the Hague International Conference.

Specifically, we are asking them to:

1. Renounce working on any instrument which would tend to organize surrogate motherhood internationally or would favor mutual recognition in this domain;

2. Recognize the necessity of a Convention on the Abolition of Surrogacy, similar to what was done against slavery and practices analogous to slavery with the Conventions of 1926 and 1956, and to recommend that the Member States of the Conference engage in this direction within the United Nations, which is the relevant organisation in this respect.

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Infertility, Insurance, IVF, Surrogacy

How They Voted: Senate imposes state mandate for health insurance coverage

Intended Parents

Source SC News

Following the Feb. 6 legislative cutoff deadline for committee action on bills in their originating house, both chambers took up debate and voted on dozens of bills in floor sessions that lasted well into the night.

Lawmakers have until Wednesday, Feb. 14, to pass bills and move them to the opposite house for further consideration. Measures that don’t make it past this deadline, except budget-related bills, will likely be dead for this session.

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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, 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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