People unable to bear children have increasingly turned to women who bear children for them, often by transferring an embryo created by in-vitro fertilization. Because legal and social views on surrogacy vary from nation to nation (and even state to state), prospective parents often engage surrogates in the United States and in developing countries. Controversy has clouded this issue.
Tag: surrogacy
Surrogates and Couples Face a Maze of Laws, State by State
While surrogacy is far more accepted in the United States than in most countries, and increasing rapidly (more than 2,000 babies will be born through it here this year), it remains, like abortion, a polarizing and charged issue. There is nothing resembling a national consensus on how to handle it and no federal law, leaving the states free to do as they wish.
Payment of ‘Reasonable Expenses’ To Embryo Donors Suggested
New relationships Bill allows for payment of expenses to surrogate mothers, but prohibits use of commercial surrogacy services
Thousands of Infertile Australians Paying for Surrogacy in India and Thailand
The booming offshore baby market has become big business with one surrogacy centre in India engaging 600 women to produce babies for wealthy overseas couples.
Fans, Foes Argue Merits of Bill Banning Surrogacy
Four-time surrogate Lynlee Weber denounced Monday a Senate bill designed to make it illegal to enter into surrogacy pregnancy contracts in Kansas under the threat of a $10,000 fine and a one-year jail sentence.
India Seeks to Regulate Its Booming ‘Rent-a-Womb’ Industry
India opened up to commercial surrogacy in 2002. It is among just a handful of countries – including Georgia, Russia, Thailand and Ukraine – and a few U.S. states where women can be paid to carry another’s genetic child through a process of in-vitro fertilization (IVF) and embryo transfer.
Recent Surrogacy Disputes in Focus
Surrogacy law and policy differs considerably between countries. Some jurisdictions ban or restrict the practice of surrogacy, whilst others have no legal regulation and some permit it on a commercial basis. Around the world, some jurisdictions continue to test and develop surrogacy law and policy and two recent surrogacy disputes have emerged from Wisconsin, in the United States, and South Africa which highlight the challenging legal and practical issues surrogacy can create.
Surrogacy Laws To Be Challenged In Court
A Cape Town woman is contesting current laws around surrogacy that require there be a genetic link with a parent, a newspaper reported.
New Study Tracks Emotional Health of ‘Surrogate Kids’
Over the past decade the number of births involving surrogacy with donor eggs and sperm has surged. What, experts wondered, does this mean for the mental and emotional health of the growing number of kids who may or may not know the truth about their distinctive origins?
Surrogate mother had the right to choose
(CNN) — If you can come up with a tale that better illustrates America’s messed-up moral views on abortion, parenting and personal freedom than the story of Crystal Kelley — the surrogate mother who was offered $10,000 by the parents to abort the fetus she was carrying for them — then you’ve got a better imagination than I do.
Let’s run through the story quickly: Kelley had agreed to be a surrogate and was being paid $2,222 a month by the parents for her trouble. But an ultrasound scan of the fetus showed serious abnormalities. Fearing that the child would never lead a normal life — whatever that may be — the parents asked Kelley to abort.
Although the surrogacy agreement contained a clause to this effect, Kelley refused. This is where things became, to put it charitably, unseemly.
The parents offered Kelly an extra $10,000 to terminate the pregnancy. Although she said she was against abortion for religious and moral reasons, Kelley eventually thought she might be able to quash those ethical qualms if the parents paid her $15,000 — $5,000 apparently being the difference between “against” and “fine with it.” The parents refused, and Kelley says she regretted the offer. Read full article.