Tag: reproductive laws

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Which Personhood Endorser in Colorado Will Be Ryan’s Role Model?

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Colorado is America’s personhood Petri Dish, where anti-choice activists first put a question on the ballot (in 2008) about whether to extend legal rights to fertilized human eggs, otherwise known as zygotes.

They lost and tried (and lost) again in 2010, and they’re trying again this year.

As the personhood initiatives have come and gone here, Colorado has seen the different reactions of politicians who endorse personhood when the eyes of everyday people turn toward them, when the wider population becomes aware that they’ve aligned themselves with the personhood folks, who even stand on the fringe of the anti-abortion movement.

As an endorser of personhood, Rep. Paul Ryan is suddenly in this category. Before being selected by Romney, no one except anti-choice activists knew Ryan had sponsored federal personhood legislation, which, among other things, would ban common forms of birth control as well as all abortions, even in the case of rape and incest.

So the question is, now that Ryan’s personhood cat is out of the back alley, what will he do?

Will Ryan, who supported personhood legislation in Congress, stand by his position? Read full article.

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Govt Backs Egg and Sperm Donor ID (AUS)

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IT is up to the states and territories to legislate so that Australians conceived through sperm or egg donations can identify their donors, the federal government says.

The government has backed a Senate committee’s call for donor information to be made available but says there is no constitutional power for the Commonwealth to legislate comprehensively in the area.

Last year in February a Senate committee handed down 32 recommendations, chief among them a proposal to introduce a national registry to contain donor information.

The recommendation, if implemented, would allow donor-conceived people to find out who their donor is once they turn 18 years old.

It also recommended donors not be able to identify their offspring unless the children gave their consent and siblings to have to give their approval to be identified to their half-brothers or sisters. Read full article.

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IVF Overhaul Proposed (UK)

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Same-sex couples and women aged up to 42 may soon be eligible for IVF treatment, according to new draft guidelines published today. The proposals were issued by the National Institute for health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) and featured prominently in the news, although they also include a range of recommendations not covered by the media.

NICE last issued full guidelines on IVF in 2004, but since then there have been advances in the drugs and techniques available. To take these changes and recent evidence into account, NICE has drawn up new extensive guidelines on everything from who should get IVF to the individual drugs that should be used.

The provisional recommendations include raising the upper age limit for IVF from 39 to 42 for some women and offering fertility treatments to same-sex couples, people whose disability prevents them having sex and people whose fertility might be damaged by cancer treatment.

Despite the tone of some newspaper coverage, the guidelines are currently at a provisional “consultation stage” where outside parties can voice their views on what should be included. The recommendations are not final, and could change significantly before they are officially published later this year. Read full article.

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NJ Governor Vetoes Surrogacy Bill

ASRM News and Research

New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie vetoed legislation yesterday intending to establish a legal framework for gestational carrier arrangements in the state. In vetoing the legislation, Christie argued that the state had not yet fully examined profound questions that surround creating a child through a contract, and that further study of the issue was necessary. The sponsors of the bill refuted the need for further study citing the year long legislative process which involved input from various stakeholders and public hearings on the issue.

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Childless lose out in quest for spare embryos

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EVERY now and again, Sarah Crooke wonders if people who look like her are relatives she has not met.

It crosses her mind because she knows very little about the people who provided the egg and sperm for the embryo that became her in an IVF clinic 20 years ago.

Aside from some notes on their physical characteristics and interests, Sarah only knows that a woman used donated sperm to create embryos and when she was finished having children, donated the rest to a couple, rather than dispose of them like many do each year.

Sarah’s parents, Karen Boyd and Terry Crooke, were the lucky recipients. After struggling for 10 years to have children, they were one of the first Australian couples to receive someone’s surplus embryos in 1993, including the ones that became their beloved twin daughters, Sarah and Rebecca.

A few years later, a couple in New South Wales who had completed their family gave them another embryo, which created their son William, who is now 13.

Ms Boyd, 57, remains eternally grateful for the donations and says she cannot imagine loving her children any more. ”I’ve treasured every step of the way,” she said.

Despite going through the process decades ago, Ms Boyd’s experience is still rare today. While the number of people donating embryos has steadily grown in Australia since 1990, only 36 babies were born as a result in 2009, including 17 in Victoria.

At the same time, demand for donations has soared. Researchers estimate demand is now outstripping supply by about 20 to one, meaning hundreds of people are on waiting lists at IVF clinics hoping for an embryo.

Research by lawyers at the University of Technology Sydney has shed some light on why so few are available. After surveying more than 300 people with embryos in storage, they discovered many had difficulty deciding what to do with those they were not going to use. For many, it was a confronting issue they had never considered until they got a letter telling them their storage time was nearly up. Read full article.

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Judge rules on when conception begins

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A Brisbane judge has made what is believed to be a world-first ruling on conception that will have a significant impact on Queensland parents who have children through surrogacy.

The decision, made by Brisbane Children’s Court judge Leanne Clare on Wednesday, ruled conception only occurred when a fertilised egg was implanted in a woman’s womb – that is, the moment of pregnancy – rather than at the moment the egg was fertilised.

“The point of conceiving a child is the commencement of the pregnancy, which involves an active process within a woman’s body.”

While the ruling has no impact on birth through natural conception, it has a major impact on surrogate parents and those with children born after in-vitro fertilisation programs.

The ruling will stop disputes in parenting orders when couples seek to have a child through a surrogacy arrangement.

Under Queensland and New South Wales surrogacy legislation, surrogacy arrangements – where the birth mother assigns parenthood to the surrogate parents – must be signed before a child is ”conceived’’. Read full article.

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Too Risky for Toddler to Meet Sperm Donor Father, Judge Rules

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The potential risk of introducing a Northern Ontario toddler to his genetic father at this point in his life is too major to be ignored, a judge has ruled in turning down a sperm donor’s bid for interim access to the boy, now being raised by his biological mother and her lesbian partner.

The decision marks the first round in a key test case of the uncertain law around exchanges of human sperm and egg, as increasing numbers of Canadian children are born by “assisted” reproduction.

A full trial is scheduled for this October to consider the man’s demand for paternity rights – and add some clarity to the tangled issue – but Rene deBlois had requested access to the boy pending the final wrap-up of the case.

The two women had argued that Tyler Lavigne, who has never met Mr. deBlois, might become confused and insecure if the 22-month-old encountered the donor now, noted Justice Norman Karam of the Ontario Superior Court in Cochrane, Ont.

“Despite the child’s young age, it is impossible to know what disclosure of [Mr. deBlois’s] status as his parent might mean,” said the judge. “All circumstances considered, the risk of there being an adverse effect to the child is too great to ignore.”

Justice Karam said he considered imposing limitations on the access to deal with those concerns, but decided the restrictions would be virtually impossible to enforce.

He said he also found “very convincing” the couple’s argument that by allowing access to the child now, he could inadvertently affect the outcome of the trial, expected to be closely watched by legal analysts, parent groups and others.

Selena Kazimierski and Nicole Lavigne say the donor – a former high-school acquaintance of Ms. Lavigne – signed an agreement that he would never contact the baby born in October, 2010, with the help of his artificially inseminated sperm. They fear the family life they have built for their son would be unduly disrupted if he that changed. The donor says he no longer honours the deal, partly because Ms. Lavigne failed to follow through on her verbal commitment to have a baby for him, too.  Read full article.

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Many Egg-Donor Recruiters Ignore Ethical Standards

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A sizable share of the U.S. organizations recruiting egg donors online don’t adhere to ethical guidelines, including failing to warn of the risks of the procedure and offering extra payment for traits like good looks, according to a U.S. study.

Women are recruited to donate eggs to fulfill a growing demand by couples seeking in-vitro fertilization (IVF), but a number of websites seeking to recruit them ignore standards set by the American Society for Reproductive Medicine (ASRM).

“I would argue that there needs to be more attention from ASRM about these agencies, because you don’t want these women exploited,” said Robert Klitzman, a professor of clinical psychiatry at Columbia University and lead author of the study that appeared in the journal Fertility & Sterility.

Ethical standards set forth by the ASRM specify that donors should be at least 21 years old, and those between ages 18 and 20 should receive a psychiatric evaluation first.

Also, women are not to be paid for their eggs but compensated, equally, for their time. Donor traits such as college grades or previous successful donations should not result in higher payment.

But abiding by the recommendations is voluntary, and the guidelines carry no legal authority, though ASRM will sanction members who do not adhere to the guidelines. But that doesn’t cover non-member organizations.

“Our ability to influence the behavior of non-members is pretty limited,” said Sean Tipton, a spokesperson for ASRM. Read full article.

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Christie Vetoes Bill that Would have Eased Tough Rules for Gestational Surrogates

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TRENTON — Gov. Chris Christie today vetoed a bill that would have relaxed New Jersey’s strict surrogate parenting law, saying the state hadn’t yet answered the “profound” questions that surround creating a child through a contract.

According to the governor’s statement explaining the veto obtained by The Star-Ledger, “Permitting adults to contract with others regarding a child in such a manner unquestionably raises serious and significant issues.”

“In contrast to traditional surrogacy, a gestational surrogate birth does not use the egg of the carrier,” the governor wrote. “In this scenario, the gestational carrier lacks any genetic connection to the baby, and in some cases, it is feasible that neither parent is genetically related to the child. Instead, children born to gestational surrogates are linked to their parents by contract.”

“While some all applaud the freedom to explore these new, and sometimes necessary, arranged births, others will note the profound change in the traditional beginnings of the family that this bill will enact. I am not satisfied that these questions have been sufficiently studied by the Legislature at this time,” according to the statement.

The bill (S1599) would have eliminated the three-day waiting period for parents of children born to surrogates to be listed on their birth certificates. It also would have required the “gestational carrier” to surrender custody of the child immediately upon the child’s birth.

The state has not updated its surrogacy law since the Baby M case in 1988, which defined the legal relationship between a surrogate using her egg and a husband who used his sperm to conceive a child. But that case involved artificial insemination, not in vitro fertilization, which is what sparked this bill involving a Union County couple.

The state Bureau of Vital Statistics initially allowed the couple to be listed on their son’s birth certificate after the three-day waiting period. But state went to court to block it because the intended mother had no genetic or biological tie to the infant – conceived with an anonymous donor egg and her husband’s sperm. She had to adopt the baby despite a surrogacy contract recognized by a judge.

Read full article.

 

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Surrogacy Laws Vary by State

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In Ohio, a surrogate and an egg donor both sued for custody of triplets after the genetic father and his fiancée failed to visit the babies in the hospital for several days.

In New Jersey, a woman who had served as a surrogate for her brother and his same-sex partner fought to raise the resulting twin girls – even though they had not been conceived with her eggs.

And in India, a set of twins ended up in an orphanage after DNA testing showed they had no genetic link to a Canadian couple who had arranged a surrogate pregnancy.

In Wisconsin, there’s no telling what the outcome of cases like these would be.

That’s because Wisconsin has no laws on surrogacy.

That’s a far cry from two nearby states: Michigan, where hiring a surrogate is a crime, and Illinois, which has perhaps the most liberal law in the nation allowing surrogacy. Some who work in the field believe the lack of regulation here is positive, while others think it puts families on dangerous legal ground.

“It depends,” said Lynn Bodi, a Madison lawyer who co-owns a surrogacy agency. “The problem is: If there was a law, we don’t know exactly what it would say.”

Judges here have dealt with surrogacy on a case-by-case basis, resulting in some positive case law, according to attorney Melissa Brisman of Reproductive Possibilities, the largest surrogacy agency on the East Coast.

Read full article.