Egg Donor & Surrogacy Law Blog

PVED & the AFA - "Hey Arizona? Please Don't Control My Reproductive Options, Thanks."

Theresa Erickson — Tue, 16 Feb 2010 11:56:52 -0800

Marna Gatlin of PVED and the AFA teamed up for a great blog regarding some up and coming Arizona legislation that I blogged about last week.

Read, and let me know your thoughts!

"by Marna Gatlin

Today I am worried – I am worried about those who for various reasons have turned to creating or adding to their family via egg donation and now might have that option threatened --especially if they live in Arizona.

The Arizona legislature is attempting to push through two bills that are coming up in the Arizona legislature for a vote - SB 1306 / HB 2651 (both bills referred to hereinafter together as “SB 1306”).

If these laws are passed they would impose oodles of restrictions on those who choose to use egg donation as treatment for their infertility. And the reason I am worried is that for many couples – especially those who live in Arizona this is going to strip these poor people of their last remaining hope to try and have a child via egg donation.

SB 1306 is going to outlaw donor egg compensation that is provided to those who donate eggs to infertile individuals who are attempting to have children via egg donation. This bill is going deny egg donors appropriate compensation and under-compensate our egg donors and discourage them from helping anyone who chooses to have a baby. And I am sorry – but that’s just wrong.

Egg donation’s been around for a very long time – 20+ years to be exact. Egg donation treatment isn’t just for those who are in their 40’s and beyond. Egg donation treatment is also for young women who have undergone cancer treatment, who have lost their ovaries to ovarian cancer, or who have lost their eggs due to chemotherapy. And what about those who have been diagnosed with premature ovarian failure, or those who have a genetic disorder that they don’t want to pass down to their future children.

What kind of message is the Arizona legislature delivering by telling a cancer survivor that instead of being able to seek treatment in her state now she has to travel elsewhere for treatment because there are no egg donors in Arizona who can offer her eggs that will help her achieve her dream of becoming a mother?

You know the UK went this route in 2004. They made compensation for both sperm and egg donation illegal. Guess what? The number of egg and sperm donors dropped horribly. The people of the UK who want to have children and are faced with waiting years and years for an egg donor who will donate completely for free aren’t doing that. Guess what they are doing? They are going overseas – to the United States, the Ukraine, Spain, and the Czech Republic to attempt to create their family. And the people of Arizona they are going to be forced to do the same thing travel to another state for treatment. That is if they can afford the expense and the time. If they can’t – Game Over.

Is that fair for them? No it’s not.

If that’s not enough – this bill (SB 1306) was created to discourage doctors from providing egg donor treatment in the first place requiring more informed contests, more red tape along with a boat load of incredibly tough penalties. One being the loss of their medical license, if the physician doesn’t follow the new imposed rules exactly as spelled out in the law. And if you read the informed consent rules – they contain inaccurate and scary scary language that is put there purposely to be scary.

Now if you were an egg donor and had the crap scared out of you – would you donate your eggs? I bet not, and I don’t blame them.

What the legislatures of Arizona don’t get is that our amazing egg donors who choose by their own volition to donate their eggs do so because they want to. They genuinely want to donate their eggs to another woman so she can have that opportunity to become pregnant, have a baby and become a mother. In fact, lots of egg donors become egg donors because they have watched someone in their family or have friends who have been directly impacted by infertility and they want to somehow help.
ASRM has created guidelines for egg donation with the intent that all clinics follow. These guidelines include how to carefully screen egg donors, how to treat egg donors, care for egg donors, how many times an egg donor should cycle, and what we should compensate our egg donors. And who provides these egg donors with the exceptional care they receive. The very same doctors who treat the parent to be who so desperately wants to become a mother that’s who.
Clinics already provide the egg donor AND the recipient with informed consent. They don’t allow any patient to go through an egg donor cycle uninformed. In fact, by the time both recipient and egg donor have completed an egg donor cycle they know more about their own bodies, and Reproductive Endocrinology than I think they might like!

God Bless RESOLVE – RESOLVE brought this issue to my attention and RESOLVE also joins ASRM in opposing two other bills, SB 1307/ HB 2652, as they will place burdens on physicians in their labs that will undermine their clinical care of patients and interfere with the best practices in medicine that doctors practicing reproductive endocrinology and infertility medicine provide to every single patient.

How can you help? If you live in Arizona: send a letter to members of the House Health and Human Services Committee, click here.

To send a letter to members of the Senate Public Safety and Human Services Committee, click here.

To read the bills, click here and search on the bill numbers.
Right from the RESOLVE WEBSITE:

“On behalf of the more than 100,000 women and men in Arizona who are contending with infertility, RESOLVE opposes SB 1306 / HB 2651 because they will burden and perhaps eliminate an effective medical treatment that has been used all across this country for decades. It is women and men who are trying to build families who will suffer if these bills become law.”

If these bills are voted on and become law what’s going to stop legislatures from other states within the United States to follow suit? Please don’t say “Oh don’t worry it will never happen” – The United Kingdom said that and we saw clearly what happened there.

Don’t allow lawmakers who don’t get it make arbitrary laws for us because they think they know better."

Donation of Embryos & the Complex Family Tree

Theresa Erickson — Mon, 15 Feb 2010 10:13:46 -0800

Embryo donation & family trees- I found an interesting article today that I thought might provoke some thoughts in both the industry and by those considering this option. I have included the family tree diagram, which was very interesting and provocative; however, at the same time I felt that shows how diverse families are and how these individuals came together to create several beautiful families - without the children losing their sense of identity. Let me know your thoughts.

"Last winter, McLaughlin and her husband, Pat, were given the twins' embryos from a couple in California who had successfully birthed a son. With two children already, their family was complete.

But the California couple never anticipated that four frozen embryos would remain — scant specks in glass pipettes, each about a hundred cells in all and visible only to a microscope.

The McLaughlins are among at least 260 families nationwide each year who successfully have babies after embryo donation, sometimes called embryo adoption.

In the process, the couple have plunged headlong into the dicey ethical, religious and medical debate over the creation and fate of frozen embryos.

It's a debate that Jen McLaughlin, who is Catholic, has tackled with total certainty, grounded in a belief that the embryos are moral equivalents of children.

.....So much so that McLaughlin and the donors are pushing the bounds of a simmering ethical debate on embryo donation even further by rethinking what "family" really means and just how far their children's genetic bonds should go.

Embryo donation sometimes is an anonymous process, with donors and recipients engaging in a cloaked transaction through fertility labs that severs the likelihood of a future child's linking to a genetic past.

But these two couples insisted on an open process so the genetically related children — even the children who still may be born from the two remaining frozen embryos — would stay connected. They felt their children had a right to know their genetic heritage, no matter if their full and half siblings are raised by different parents in different circumstances and most did not come from the same womb."

The story continues, "Social scientists also aren't sure what may come of this. While research suggests open adoption is healthy in traditional circumstances, there is no research on how embryo adopted children may fare in open arrangements. And some worry that parents are imposing sibling relationships on the children without first giving them a choice.

That concern is shared even by some conservative groups that encourage adopting embryos but condemn the technology that made them.

"My concern always in these cases is the adults who are creating all of these confusing relationships, and the way they do it fairly nonchalantly," said Barbara Quigley, executive director of the Center for Bioethics and Culture Missouri.

McLaughlin says it's all very simple when you look into the sleeping faces of her twins.

"People are going to look at their photos and agree this is the right thing to do," she said.

All the studies in the world also aren't going to change the embryo donor's convictions about open adoption and donation.

"I think that most people who are researchers have never been adopted," she said. "If they haven't had that experience, they couldn't possibly know what it was like."

So, with tiny baby steps, everyone is moving ahead in this most modern of families, linked genetically and contractually, potentially for a lifetime."

Friday Legal Updates™- Australia Surrogacy, Indiana Surrogacy & Twitter/Facebook IVF Fund

Theresa Erickson — Fri, 12 Feb 2010 10:57:04 -0800

Surrogacy News has been big this week in Australia, specifically in Queensland - and our updates will focus on where this will take the people of Australia in their quest to have a child via surrogacy. But, first we will start with Indiana, where a couple is fighting for the right to have their names on the birth certificate of their child.

Indiana - The biological parents of a child born via surrogacy are challenging a ruling by the Indiana courts. The Court of Appeals is to hear arguments this week. A trial court denied their request as follows:

"A trial court judge denied the biological parents' petition to establish paternity and maternity for the child, ruling that "Indiana law does not permit a non birth mother to establish maternity. Indiana law holds the birth mother is the legal maternal mother." The surrogate mother filed an affidavit in support of the biological parents' petition. The biological parents appealed, arguing that the paternity statute denies women equal protection and should be declared unconstitutional."

Facebook & Twitter IVF Fund - Interesting story. What are your thoughts?

"The invitation went out by e-mail, Facebook and Twitter almost simultaneously to friends of San Francisco's Molly and Brian Walsh. Its title was tantalizing: "Makin' Whoopie." But its purpose was pure, as well as purely provocative.
"You can't help us in the bedroom, but you can help us make a baby," read the invitation to the party, which may have been a Bay Area first - a fundraiser to collect money for costly fertility procedures. With insurance companies reluctant to pay for the cost of in-vitro fertilization and few states with laws requiring insurers to do so, couples unable to pay for the procedure, which runs $12,000 on average, have few resources other than their own creativity.

Two low-profile national nonprofits, the International Council on Infertility Information Dissemination in Arlington, Va., and BUMPS (Bringing U Maternal and Parental Success) in South Florida, offer in-vitro fertilization services to couples without the money or insurance to pay, and who meet select criteria. Together, they assist fewer than 100 couples annually.

Despite their online know-how, the Walshes had not searched the Web for outsiders' help.

"It never occurred to me to reach out to them - I'd reach out to my own community first," said Molly Walsh, 38, head of business development at USA Hosts/Key Events. Her husband, Brian, 37, is the founder and chief executive of Castfire, a video publishing company. The couple, who met at a friend's house in 2006, are participants in Nevada's Burning Man festival and immersed in social networking, for business and pleasure.

Their decision to go public with a private matter was not easy. They feared backlash because the nature of their crisis was not life-threatening. Moreover, they had already saved $10,000, but were overwhelmed by the cost of the treatment - $25,000 to $30,000 in their case because they also need genetic testing of the fertilized embryos. Brian Walsh has Marfan's syndrome, a connective tissue disease, which they do not want to pass on to their offspring. There is also the race against the fertility clock."

Australia - Non-commercial surrogacy is no longer a crime in Queensland after a weeklong debate where sparks were flying over same sex and single parent surrogacy. Although they do not expect to see surrogacy occuring in great numbers, many are upset with the results. Unfortunately, many also think that any payments to surrogates under the table will be difficult to stop. One must note, however, that the surrogate is still entitled to not relinquish the baby. An important note for those thinking of this as an option there.

Arizona Reconsiders Egg Donor Legislation

Theresa Erickson — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 11:00:52 -0800

Egg Donation - The legislative agenda of Arizona's state lawmakers is now being made public. In fact, Representative David Stevens, a Sierra State Republican from District 25, is a primary sponsor of the following bills:

He is a primary sponsor of measures that would require physicians to give specific informed-consent information to prospective egg donors; bar the selling of human eggs; and another that bars in vitro fertilization of a human egg with anything but human sperm or the transfer of a human embryo to anything but a human womb.

Not sure where these bills will end up, as the barring of compensation was debated in Arizona in the past. We all need to pay attention as this reaches the actual stages of debate.

Surrogacy, Egg Donation, and Love & Fertility - A Valentine's Day Special Radio Show

Theresa Erickson — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 11:17:11 -0800

Surrogacy, egg and sperm donation, as well as Adoption put a huge strain on a couple's marriage or partnership. We all know this whether we acknowledge it or not. Which is why I teamed up with Expert, Kristen Magnacca, for today's show. She provides ALOT of great insight for couples who have no where else to go. There are also issues of jealousy, guilt, sadness, loss, and vulnerability that many choose not to address. In fact, she noted that couples need to start (together) with the five things to help you, as a couple, survive infertility.

They are as follows:

1. Write down your dreams
2. Write down your goals that point you toward those dreams
3. Focus on your relationship at least once every day, along with focusing on yourself at least once a day
4. Remind each other daily how much love there is between you despite the difficulties you are both now facing
5 Remember your love story - we all have one!

Look to Kristen for further advice - I think, no, I KNOW, that you will not regret it. I know that I didn't.

Friday Legal Updates™- Surrogacy/Adoption Scam, Dr. Phil, and IVF/Embryo Adoption Law Updates

Theresa Erickson — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 09:10:19 -0800

Surrogacy,Embryo Donation & Dr. Phil - well, it has been a slow week for news, but again the legislation that is being considered in Tennessee and Oklahoma should cause us all to pause - patients and industry professionals alike. TGIF!

Chicago - A Federal Appeals Court has upheld the conviction (rightly so) of a woman who scammed would-be parents by posing as a pregnant woman seeking to place her baby for adoption. She also responded to ads placed by people looking for surrogate mothers with the false claim that she was already pregnant and was planning to give the baby up for adoption. Beware and be careful out there.

Dr. Phil - More on the Michigan Surrogacy Debacle - Should a mental illness prevent a woman from being a mother? Shelly made headlines when she agreed to be a surrogate for Amy and Scott, but later reclaimed the babies when she says she discovered that Amy had a mental disorder. It’s an emotional Dr. Phil you don’t want to miss!

Oklahoma - The state is considering an embryo adoption law similar to Georgia. As we know this is disasterous as it increased costs to the Intended Parents. Take action!

Tennessee - This state is also following Georgia with bills on both the Senate and House Floors. However, the House Bill does not make an adoption petition required, and it does have some good points, such as the maintenance of records for 21 years and the right of the child to obtain information at the age of 18 years. It does require a written contract. This bill is much easier to stomach, and actually would do alot of the things that are needed in this industry, including maintenance of records and release of information at the age of majority.

Italy - The Italian Court has modified the legislation on Assisted Reproduction by finding the previous legislation regarding the protection of all embryos to be unconstitutional. The future of this is unknown, as it appears that the Parliment will now need to step in, which is unlikely.

Another great place to watch for legislative updates and where to find a place to help join the fight is Resolve - Take Action!

Women & Their Fertility - The Clock is Ticking...

Theresa Erickson — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 08:58:09 -0800

Women, Their Bioloigical Clock, and Their Eggs - For women who are contemplating how to balance family and career, there is an important study out of the University of St. Andrews and Edinburgh University in Scotland. They found that women have lost 90 percent of their eggs by the time they are 30 years old, and only have about 3 percent remaining by the time they are 40. Well, what does that mean to you? That means that you need to be proactive in your decisions that you make now, as it may affect your ability to have your own genetic chilldren in the future.

In fact, the article noted as follows:

"You can't reverse the biological clock, but Savard said there are certain factors within your control that have an impact upon your fertility.
For example, stopping smoking, keeping your weight down and controlling stress can all slow the loss of fertility.
Women who have more pregnancies are fertile for longer, and some women are born with more eggs than others, she said. The more eggs with which a woman is born, the longer she will be fertile and more time she will have until the onset of menopause."

Women need to educate themselves, which is why the Manicures and Martinis series by the American Fertility Association is so important.

What to Expect When Expecting...A Donor Child - A Great Article by the AFA

Theresa Erickson — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 09:14:30 -0800

Egg Donation and the AFA - the AFA has posted a great article by Dr. Piave Pitisci Lake, who writes as follows regarding utilizing egg donation in creating your family:

"We all think about heredity when we think about having a baby. Who will the baby look like? Who will the baby be like in personality or temperament? Who do we want the baby to be like? Will the baby be healthy or have the illness that “x” relative had? There are some things we hope will be avoided and some things we hope will be passed on. We generally think that we will see something of ourselves, or our family, in our children. After all, our children have 50% of our genes. For those using donor gametes to conceive, the dreams and fantasies (the template) of what our children will be like are half complete.

We all have assumptions about what is nature (genetics) and what is nurture. Who we are is, of course, determined on the most basic level by our genes. But the role of genes in determining what we look like, whether we have certain diseases or are at increased risk to have certain diseases, our mental abilities, interests, talents, etc., is very complex.

Diseases, conditions, and traits (abnormal and normal) can be inherited through single-gene defects, chromosomal abnormalities, and in a multifactorial way. Human cells have 46 chromosomes-22 pairs of autosomal chromosomes and 1 pair of sex chromosomes (XX, XY). Chromosomes are made up of many genes. Genes are made of DNA. Each chromosome of a pair contains the same genetic information, but there might be slight differences. We have identified many disorders caused single-gene defects or chromosomal abnormalities. These can be detected through information about family history as well as genetic or chromosomal testing. We can also predict the risk of inheritance of these diseases with significant accuracy. Diseases that are inherited in a multifactorial way are also genetically determined and may be found to cluster in families, but the specific genes are not well known. In addition, the expression of the disease depends on the interaction of multiple genes and environmental circumstances. The risk of inheritance of these conditions is less clear. It depends on the disease in question, its severity, and the number of family members affected....

Ultimately, who we are, who our children are and the factors that influence our development are very complex and beyond our ability to reduce our offspring to simple cause and effect. We like to think we have an idea of what our children will be like if we are using our own gametes because we are familiar with what has come before us and because genes from a familiar gene pool are being used. We also have ideas of the parts of ourselves we would like to see (or not see) in our children. Maybe they can be a better version of us. For recipients of donor gametes, half of what will influence whom the child will be is unknown. Recipients are forced to speculate based on information available in the donor profile or from meeting the donor and their own assumptions about what this will mean for their offspring. As much as genes determine who we are, it is the interaction of genes and environment that shape us and, on many levels, the result of this process is unknowable. Our children are who they are, not whom we think their genes say they are."

Another great resource is Marna Gatlin at PVED.

Friday Legal Updates™ - "Rosie O'Donnell: A Family is Forever"

Theresa Erickson — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 10:11:02 -0800

Surrogacy, Adoption & Creating Your Family via Many Routes - Rosie O'Donnell, love her or hate her, you should watch this show next week. This is really not a legal update, but I couldn't help myself. The show airs Sunday on HBO at 7pm EST.

Happy Friday!

Surrogacy Done Right - Psychological Aspects

Theresa Erickson — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 13:07:49 -0800

Great show today with Andrea Bryman, LMFT, on the psychological aspects of surrogacy. Have a listen - it is a great show!

Surrogacy Done Right Radio Show!

Legal Puzzle of Parentage? New York Times finally gets it right on this one.....

Theresa Erickson — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 10:39:20 -0800

Surrogacy & Egg Donation & the Legal Puzzle Regarding Parentage - I am pleased to see that someone at the New York Times finally posted something positive on surrogacy - a concept to say the least regarding how these cases should be handled by the courts. In fact, the writer is focusing on the science that is now evolving whereby the defective DNA of one female is removed and replaced with another female's DNA - effectively causing there to be more than two genetic parents. However, the writer elaborates with some common sense information that is both timely and responsible.

"When technology transforms a legal field — as the Internet is doing now for privacy, and digital music and video are doing for copyright — judges and legal thinkers have to decide what are the important values.

Parenthood cannot be reduced to a formula, but the law should move toward a greater recognition that the intent of the people involved is more important than the genes. That would provide useful guidance for courts to think about fractional parents — especially if the day comes when three or more people want to combine their DNA to create a baby."

Nice job and good advice for the courts and legislatures alike!

India Fertility Industry Hit with Another Blow & Americans Giving Birth Overseas Using an Egg Donor

Theresa Erickson — Mon, 25 Jan 2010 11:26:40 -0800

In an article that was just posted in India, controvery continues to follow India and its fertility industry. In this article entitled rightly so, "In the Womb of Controversy," the writer states the following:

"As high drama is being played out in Indian courts over surrogacy issues, the US consulate in Chennai, perhaps worried about the rash of litigations has decided to tighten its visa processing norms, particularly for couples coming to the city for fertility treatment and assisted reproduction.

About a month ago, Vimala (name changed), a US citizen, returning home after delivering a healthy baby boy, was put through a grilling at the US consulate in Chennai when she went to obtain a passport for her new-born. On learning that she had conceived the child with the help of donor eggs (through assisted reproduction by transfer of eggs or oocytes donated by another woman), the consulate declined to recognise her as the biological mother.

"The father's name and mother's name are mentioned in the consular report of birth. This certificate is issued to recognise a US citizen child born outside the country. But the certificate for my son does not list me as the mother. I had to go through a lawyer to process adoption in the US and get the certificate amended to incorporate my name," Vimala said in a communication to her doctor.
The incident triggered protests among a section of fertility experts in Chennai and kicked off a debate on personal privacy and patient confidentiality and the need for laws. "The laws in India and those of countries from where patients come for treatment should be made clear. Our guidelines state that a surrogate mother gives a written undertaking relinquishing all rights over the child, and the same applies to an egg donor as well," pointed out Dr Priya Selvaraj of the Chennai-based GG hospital.

Dr Falguni Bavishi of the Ahmedabad-based Bavishi Fertility Institute insisted that none of her patients, five so far from the US and who delivered through donor eggs, faced 'harassment' at the consulate. "We made it clear to the consulate that the delivery was through egg donation," she said.

With the Assisted Reproductive Technology (Regulation) Bill 2008 still in the cans, India's stand on issues relating to surrogacy remains a set of guidelines on paper. Said Dr PM Bhargava, the chief architect of the Bill and former member of National Knowledge Commission: "The draft bill clearly says that if anyone from outside the country wishes to have a child using ART procedure, they have to produce evidence that they can take back the child without problems."

According to Bhargava, one of the architects of the Bill, issues relating to surrogacy have been addressed in the proposed legislation. "We had foreseen problems like this (the legal tussle between divorced Japanese parents and their daughter Manjhi Yamada, born from an Indian surrogate mother and the case of the German couple fighting for citizenship for their twins)," he said.

In the case of the German couple, the Supreme Court has suggested that adoption would be the only way out for their surrogate twins.

Authorities in Germany, which does not recognise surrogacy, were willing to consider their application for a temporary visa for the twins for initiation of adoption process.

US consulate officials declined to comment, merely citing the US Federal statutes governing acquisition of US citizenship by birth abroad to a US citizen parent. Section 7 FAM 1131.4-2 (Citizenship in Artificial and In Vitro Insemination Cases) states that "a child born abroad to a surrogate mother who is the blood mother (that is, who was the egg-donor) and whose father was a US citizen is treated for citizenship purposes as a child born out of wedlock".

But with the ART bill gathering dust and India emerging as a major hub for transcultural surrogacy, the country could well see more cases like that of Jan Balaz and Susan Lohle, the German couple battling to save their surrogate twins from becoming stateless citizens. "

However, women using egg donors and giving birth overseas anywhere need to be aware of this issue, as I have seen it several times in Israel, as well as other countries. Currently, you will have to do an adoption once you return home to the US if you inform them that an egg donor was used. Be careful! And, again this is why it is important to do your research beforehand.

Friday Legal Updates™ - Lesbian Custody Disputes & Sperm Donor Anonymity

Theresa Erickson — Fri, 22 Jan 2010 10:45:52 -0800

Surrogacy Issues - Well, we have had a quiet week - thank goodness! Especially after all the negative press last month regarding surrogacy. We do have a few issues to ponder, so here it is:

California - Santa Cruz court to hear custody hearing on former lesbian partners' dispute over twins. The sticking point in this case is that the sperm donor is now acting as the father, living with the biological, lesbian partner, and they are now a couple themselves. Currently, the judge has granted temporary visitation to the other partner until the hearing takes place.

Vermont - Contempt Hearing Scheduled in Lesbian Custody Battle. Another lesbian custody case has come to a head due to one former partner failing to exchange custody fo the child as ordered by the court.

"Many of those who are opposed to this custody exchange have used a series of arguments ranging from the argument that Isabella Miller is the biological daughter of Lisa Miller to arguments how Janet Jenkins is a stranger to Isabella Miller. Unfortunately for them, the law recognizes the rights of non-biological parents. Many men use sperm donors and women use egg donors and they are considered to be the parents of children conceived within any marriage or union that takes place even if they are not biologically related. In a case in California, a woman made the argument that her ex-husband was not the biological father of their child, and that meant that he had no rights with regards to the child. The courts found otherwise, and ultimately granted the ex-husband sole custody of the child after the woman followed the same course of action as Lisa Miller. As for the stranger argument, Janet Jenkins is the mother of Isabella by virtue of the civil union, and is only a stranger to Isabella since Lisa Miller has done her best to prevent any and all contact between Isabella Miller and Janet Jenkins."

Sad story for all involved regardless of anyone's sexual orientation.

Worldwide - Sperm Donor Anonymity - A hospital in Delftzijl has won its legal battle to keep the name of a sperm donor secret from the lesbian couple who had a baby using his sperm. The couple had gone to court to get the donor's details after their child was born with dark skin - they had chosen a white donor.

"The hospital suspects the sperm may have come from an Aruban man who was in the hospital withh is wife for an artificial insemination programme. Officials have offered to contact this couple on behalf of the two women.

Groningen court rejected the women's appeal for information, saying they should first take the hospital up on this offer."

Try and have a dry weekend everyone!

German Surrogate Twins - End of Legal Battle in Sight After 2 years

Theresa Erickson — Wed, 20 Jan 2010 10:12:28 -0800

German Surrogate Twins born in India may finally be able to go home with both of their parents, of which one parent has had to remain in India for almost two years. Ladies and gentleman, this is a cautionary tale of a couple wanting to be parents so badly that proper legal advice was not obtained beforehand. You MUST check the laws of where you child is being born AND where you reside. You cannot and should be taking advice from centers who tell you that things will work out - they have in the past. You need solid legal guidance that makes certain things will go smoothly, as Murphy's Law never fails.

Here is where the case now stands:

"New Delhi, Jan 20 (PTI) The Supreme Court today allowed a German couple to approach the government of Germany to go in for an "inter-country" adoption of the twins born to them from a surrogate Indian woman.

A bench of Justices G S Singhvi and Asok Kumar Ganguly granted the permission after senior counsel L Nageswara Rao, appearing for the couple, sought 10 days time to go through the procedure as it involved certain intricacies.

Appearing on behalf of the Centre, Solicitor General Gopal Subramanaiam assured the apex court that the government "would extend all possible assistance to the petitioner (couple) to facilitate the adoption on humanatarian considation.

On the basis of the undertaking given by the couple and the Centre, the apex court posted the matter for further hearing after a fortnight."

Again, this is not a done deal, but it looks as if an end is in sight. Good luck to them!

IVF - How Old is Too Old?

Theresa Erickson — Tue, 19 Jan 2010 08:53:28 -0800

IVF & Age - Britain's oldest woman to undergo fertility treatments is now 59 years old. She herself thinks that there should be an age limit, but she believes that it should be in the 60's.

"Mrs Tollefsen, who turns 60 in October, said: "I agree there should be a cut-off point. Perhaps 65 is too old, but I'm full of life and healthy.

'I know other people are looking forward to retirement while I'm looking forward to kindergarten and infant school.'

'"But if the circumstances are right I'd encourage other women my age to do this.' She had her first baby aged 57 after travelling to Russia for the fertility treatment that had been refused in Britain.

The decision to help her has sparked an angry response from people who think it is unnatural for OAPs to have families using IVF.

Her case could provoke a wave of old mums who can afford the £5,000 to overcome infertility."

Based on this angry response from those opposed to this, legislation is now being considered in Britain in order to set an age limit on IVF. In fact, politicians think that this move by Mrs. Tollefsen may set a "dangerous precedent".

Furthermore. a pro-life group commented as follows: "What's missing from this, apart from consideration of the rights of the child, is that there's no real focus on egg donation and this is very bad news.

"Would women expose themselves to the risks of donation if they knew the eggs were going to a woman of 59? You're exploiting a woman and putting her at risk to fulfil the fantasies of another woman who can't accept that she's gone beyond the menopause."

In fact, the following facts are worth noting - the oldest woman in Britain to give birth is 66-year-old Elizabeth Adeney, a company director from Lidgate, Suffolk, who had a boy last May. The world's oldest new mum, Rajo Devi, 70, from Haryana, India, had a daughter last year. Maria del Carmen Bousada de Lara was 66 when she gave birth to twins in Barcelona, Spain, in 2006. She died in July 2009. the first famous elderly mum was Rosanna della Corte from Canino, Italy, who was 64 when she gave birth to a son in 1994.

What do you think?

German Twins Born via Surrogacy in India Denied Visas

Theresa Erickson — Mon, 18 Jan 2010 08:59:54 -0800

India Surrogacy & German Twins - the twins born to a surrogate in India approximately two years ago have hit another legal hurdle. The Indian courts had requested that the German government grant the children temporary visas so that the couple can finally go home from India with their children. However, news reports now state that Germany has rejected the parents' bid for the visas. The German government stated that their only real option was to adopt the twins. A cautionary tale for all when thinking about reproductive tourism.

The twins of a German couple born to an Indian surrogate mother may have a chance to go to Germany – if the couple decides to adopt them. The Supreme Court asked the couple if they would consider adopting the two-year-olds as Germany does not recognise surrogate motherhood.
The apex court Monday asked Jan Balaaz and his wife if they would consider adopting the children after Solicitor General Gopal Subramanium told the court that Germany does not recognise surrogate motherhood, but allows international adoption of children by its citizens.

Subramanium told the bench of Justice G.S. Singhvi and Justice Asok Ganguly that in the given scenario, the German couple may consider adopting the twins.

He gave the information during hearing of a lawsuit by the government challenging the Gujarat High Court ruling which had directed the government to give Indian passport to the twins born to Jan Balaaz and his wife through a surrogate Indian mother.

The apex court has asked the couple to take their decision and apprise it within two days.

The apex court on Jan 4 asked the central government to try to settle the tangled issue of citizenship of the twins through diplomatic channels. The children were born to Gujarati surrogate mother Marthaben.

The government is opposed to grant an Indian passport to the twins on the ground that it would mean granting them Indian citizenship.

The Gujarat High Court in its order on a lawsuit by the German couple ordered passports for the twins born in January 2008.

The couple came to India in December 2006 in search of a surrogate mother and entered into an agreement with Marthaben, according to which she lost her right over the child after delivery.

On the plea of the German couple last month, the apex court asked the government to provide travel documents to the twins within 48 hours, while asking them to approach the German embassy for visa to the twins.

Friday Legal Updates™ - Abortion Foes & Egg Donation, NJ Gay Bill, & Prop. 8, Marriage & Infertility

Theresa Erickson — Fri, 15 Jan 2010 12:42:23 -0800

First, let's start out with a moment of silence for all of the people of Haiti. Please make donations via www.whitehouse.gov.

TGIF! Now, let's start out with our updates:

1.New York - Abortion foes are challenging the payment of $10K to egg donors for use in research by the NY Stem Cell Board. Interestingly enough, no donor has donated through this program. The Board argues that the case lacks merit; however, the group believes that the offer of money for the donation of eggs exploits women. What do you think? The Board also argues as follows:

"There is no principled reason to distinguish between donation of oocytes for reproductive purposes and research purposes when determining the ethicality of reimbursement," the board wrote. "The risks associated with donating oocytes to stem cell research are no greater than those associated with reproductive donations. Moreover, donating oocytes to stem cell research arguably confers a greater benefit to society than does oocyte donation for private reproductive use."

The group, Rochester-based Feminists Choosing Life New York State, on the other hand think that

"It's going to entice young, economically vulnerable women -- single mothers, college students with loans, unemployed women, immigrants."

2. New Jersey - The State Senate has defeated a bill to legalize gay marriage in the state. The vote was 20-14, and the new governor threatened to veto regardless. At least New Jersey does offer civil unions for gay couples. But, is that enough?

3. California - Should Infertility Be a Valid Reason for Marriage License Denial? In the defense of Prop 8 by their lead counsel, Charles Cooper, they have argued as follows:

The AFP reports Charles Cooper, an attorney for Proposition 8’s campaign committee, Protect Marriage, has said during the trial “the purpose of the institution of marriage, the central purpose, is to promote procreation and to channel naturally procreative sexual activity between men and women in stable enduring unions.”

However, opponents of Prop 8 have a novel argument of their own:

Congratulations Mr. Cooper, in the name of all that is holy, you’ve just stated the case for denying infertile men or women a marriage license. Looks like it’s time to shut down the uber Christian Snowflakes embryo adoption project.

Largely backed by evangelical Christianity, the California court case stands to have a marked impact on the fate of civil unions and gay marriage across the country. It’s already been made clear by Project Marriage supporters that they’re out to deny a portion of the citizenry their civil rights.

But sweeping statements like those above prove why this is a fight for more than the homosexual population. The CDC estimates more than seven million American women (between the ages of fifteen and forty-four) have fertility issues. That’s nearly twelve percent of the female population of childbearing age.

Currently, seven and a half percent of married women in that age range are infertile. And that’s just the women - studies posit forty percent of infertility issues in couples are from the male.

Ultimately, if they are going to use the inability to procreate as a reason gay marriage can’t be legalized, shouldn’t it apply to heterosexual couples? This article addresses this argument quite nicely. Well done.

Good Morning America, Melissa Brisman and the Michigan Surrogate Twins

Theresa Erickson — Tue, 12 Jan 2010 07:48:35 -0800

Surrogacy, Surrogacy, Surrogacy - good morning and a shout out to my friend and colleague, Melissa Brisman, for her spot today on Good Morning America regarding the Michigan twins that were handed over to their gestational surrogate. The parents call it "legal kidnapping." What do you think? I think that this is a sad loophole in the law that needs to be fixed since she is a gestational surrogate. By the way, I think that the facts show that the parents were found fit with a home study.

So, with that, why does the surrogate think that they are "her babies?" Hasn't she been a surrogate twice before? Has she been judged as a fit parent now that she has six children? Are they receiving any state aid?

Oh, and by the way, is it true that the agreement with the parents was only oral? If so, didn't she know better since she has done this before? Or, is she hiding something due to the laws in Michigan so as not to face criminal prosecution, if any?

Many, many questions from my end. How about you? And, again, I must reiterate, speak with a lawyer first!! Or, at least before one moves forward, whether as an Intended Parent or a surrogate - because in this case, everyone here loses - both families and these children.

See Video from GMA here.

Lesbians, Utah & Surrogacy Plus Prop 8 Fight Is Televised

Theresa Erickson — Mon, 11 Jan 2010 07:58:01 -0800

Good morning....wanted to update everyone on the televised proceeding for Prop 8 here as follows: http://www.equalrightsfoundation.org/live-updates/

In addition, a surprising admission by a Utah lawmaker. She is carrying a child for a gay couple as a traditional surrogate.

Rep. Christine Johnson will serve an additional role when the Utah Legislature convenes this month. The lesbian lawmaker announced she's a surrogate mother, carrying a baby for two gay men.

Johnson, D-Salt Lake City, said she decided to become artificially impregnated with sperm from one of the men after the two close friends expressed frustration over the difficulty of adopting a child.

Utah law prohibits unmarried couples from adopting and does not recognize gay marriage.

Johnson, 41, who has a 17-year-old daughter from a two-year marriage, is four months pregnant and expecting on June 21.

"I can very much empathize with their desire to become parents and share their lives with and open their hearts to a child," Johnson told the Salt Lake Tribune. "I'm immeasurably grateful to be a mother."

Johnson offered to be a surrogate at no cost to save the Salt Lake County men the prohibitive cost of hiring one - as much as $100,000.

What a nice story about a family and a politician who is not worried about her choices, good ones I may add, affecting her chances at re-election.

Tia Tequila Surrogacy and Doctor "Octomom" Kamrava

Theresa Erickson — Tue, 05 Jan 2010 08:36:33 -0800

Surrogacy and Multiple Embryos - How would one ever expect these two individuals to be in the same post? But, here we have it. Dr. Kamrava, the infamous doctor for the "Octomom," is now being accused of "gross negligence."

A disciplinary complaint filed by the California Medical Board said that Dr Michael Kamrava acted “beyond reasonable judgment” by helping Nadya Suleman to conceive octuplets.

The complaint filed by Barbara Johnston, the executive director of the medical board, questioned Dr Kamrava’s treatment methods and criticised him for not referring Ms Suleman to a mental health professional after she repeatedly sought fertility treatment. At the time she conceived she was living in her mother's three-bedroomed home, subsisting on benefits.

The complaint states that Dr Kamrava implanted Ms Suleman with a far greater number of embryos than the American Society of Reproductive Medicine recommends and "beyond the reasonable judgment of any treating physician".

The ASRM expelled Dr Kamrava in September, but his medical licence was not affected, allowing him to continue treating patients.

The medical board has yet to set a date for hearing the complaint, which could result in Dr Kamrava’s license being revoked or suspended.

Hopefully, this issue will be resolved, but not before he will implant Tia Tequila! Of course, we all know that she has not been a mother yet, so he would be the perfect doctor to use for her and her brother. She claims that she wants to be a surrogate for her brother, but we also know that a woman should have given birth to at least one child and have custody of that child. That case is just what this industry needs - more problems being created by those who do not seek the advice of competent practitioners. Happy 2010!

Theresa Erickson
Attorney at Law
www.ericksonlaw.net
www.surrogacy-eggdonation.com