Tag: surrogacy

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Genetic mother of twins wins historic Irish surrogacy case

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Dublin CourtsThe genetic mother of twins born through a surrogate pregnancy has won her court battle to be declared the legal mother on the children’s birth certificates.

In this landmark case the genetic mother defeated the Irish government. In the past Ireland had refused the mother’s demands to be recorded as a parent on the children’s birth certs. The Irish State’s defense for their stance had been the 1937 constitution, which states that the woman who gives birth to the baby is recorded as the mother.

On Tuesday Dublin High Court Justice Henry Abbott said that these 1937 laws governing birth certificates and parentage needed to be updated to reflect the growing use of artificial insemination, embryo implantation, and other fertility techniques.

The genetic mother in question, whose identity is withheld under Irish law, had been declared medically unable to carry her child. Her sister volunteered to serve as a surrogate mother. Read full article.

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Illegal purchase of sperm, eggs and surrogacy services leads to 27 charges against Canadian fertility company and CEO

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reproductive laws CFCFor nine years, the criminal law in Canada has prohibited anyone from buying human eggs or sperm or the services of a surrogate mother.

For just as long, it has been common knowledge in the fertility-treatment field — and easily confirmed by anyone with Internet access — that such commercial transactions routinely take place, conveniently free of enforcement action.

That all changed Friday, with news that an Ontario surrogacy consultant and her company had been charged with 27 offences under both assisted-reproduction legislation and the Criminal Code, capping a groundbreaking, year-long investigation.

The charges laid by RCMP investigators against Leia Picard and her Canadian Fertility Consultants (CFC) in Brighton, Ont. — the firm also has a branch in Comox, B.C. — stunned the thriving assisted-reproduction industry, while also raising questions about whether the neglected legislation itself is even needed. Critics applauded what they considered long-overdue action. Read full article.

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India Bars Same-Sex Couples From Using Surrogates

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Officials from India’s government announced that gay couples and single individuals from other countries who wish to start a family are prohibited from using the country’s popular surrogate program, New Delhi Television Limited reports.

India’s surrogacy program is a growing industry. Over the past few years, foreign couples, both gay and straight, have taken advantage of the country’s low-cost and legally simple way to access a surrogate. The new measure, however, not only bars same-sex couples from using the surrogates but also leaves gay couples who already started the process in limbo.

The new rules state that only straight couples who have been married for more than two years can use India’s surrogacy program. Notified by the change from a message on the Indian Home Ministry’s website, fertility clinics and LGBT rights activists termed the move “discriminatory”.

“It’s totally unfair – not only for gay people but for people who are not married who may have been living together for years and for singles,” Mumbai gay rights advocate Nitin Karani said.

“Parenting is everybody’s right and now we’re withdrawing that right,” Dr. Rita Bakshi, who is the head of the International Fertility Centre in New Delhi, said. “These rules are definitely not welcome, definitely restrictive and very discriminatory.” Read full article.

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Should commercial surrogacy be made legal in Britain?

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More and more heterosexual and same-sex couples in Britain are turning to surrogate mothers to help them have a family.

This month, singer Sir Elton John and his civil partner, film producer David Furnish, welcomed their second son into the world.

Both children were born to the same surrogate mother through an agency in California, where commercial surrogacy is legal and surrogates can be paid.

While surrogacy is legal in Britain, it is a criminal offence to pay a surrogate mother more than ‘reasonable expenses’ and it is also illegal to advertise that you are seeking a surrogate mother or willing to act as one.

Couples here wanting to have a baby through surrogacy can travel to somewhere like the US where they can use a professional agency, or they can find a willing surrogate here, often through the help of non-profit organisations which host social events and online forums where surrogates and intended parents can meet. Read full article.

 

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Who’s Mom? Legally, biologically, it’s no easy answer

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Artificial reproductive technologies have made familiar terms outdated and inadequate. Supreme Court could clarify parents’ rights later this year with rulings in two gay marriage cases.

In a classic 1960 children’s book, a baby bird toddles up to one critter after another asking, “Are you my mother?”

For some babies today, there’s no simple answer — biologically or legally.

Advances in artificial reproductive technologies, mean a baby could have three “mothers” — the genetic mother, the birth mother and the intended parent, who may be a woman or a man.

Mother here may not be mother there. Mother nowmay not be mother later. Statutes on surrogacy, adoption, divorce and inheritance vary state by state, court by court, decision by decision. For non-traditional couples, the patchwork of laws makes it even more complex. New York allows gay marriage but forbids surrogacy, while Utah permits surrogacy but bans gay marriage. Read full article.

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Quigley: Who’s Your Mommy? New problems with surrogacy contracts

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If a married woman has a baby, her husband is automatically named father, even if she uses a sperm donor or her spouse has been in jail or Afghanistan for a year and she’s been fooling around with every guy in town. A suspicious husband can demand blood or DNA tests to disprove paternity, but if he doesn’t challenge, he is deemed the father, no matter what.

Disputed motherhood was never an issue. Until recently. It used to be simple: the woman who delivered a baby was its mother. Pretty obvious, right?

Then along came surrogacy contracts, when some women agreed to bear children for other women.

 Now stick with me here. This can get complicated. A surrogate may agree to become pregnant with her own egg and sperm from the intended father. Or she may use an egg from the intended mother who can ovulate but not carry a child to term. Or she can accept an egg from a third party. Sperm can be from either the intended father or a donor. Read full article.
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Court’s Split Decision Provides Little Clarity on Surrogacy

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Unable to conceive, the New Jersey couple did what an increasing number of 21st-century parents have done: they got an egg from an anonymous donor, and made an agreement with another woman to carry the child for them.

And knowing that there are any number of ways that having a child by surrogate can end in heartache, they tried to protect against it. They had the surrogate legally renounce her right to the child, and had a judge pre-emptively order that their names appear on the birth certificate. Read full article.

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Study Finds Ten Years After Being Gestational Carriers, Women and Families Doing Well

ASRM News and Research

Researchers speaking at the 68th Annual Meeting of the American Society for Reproductive Medicine today unveiled a study showing that a decade after serving as gestational carriers, both the women who served as gestational carriers and their families were doing well and had positive feelings about the experience.

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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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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.