Surrogacy in the News

Video: I’ve Met Hundreds of Egg Donors. This Is What I’ve Learned.

I’ve Met Hundreds of Egg Donors. This Is What I Have Learned.
By Raquel Cool | We Are Egg Donors | Dec. 26, 2017

Watch Raquel, co-founder of We Are Egg Donors, and others in its 1000+ member network share their experiences and concerns related to paid egg donation, from the risks associated with unethically high numbers of harvested eggs to the absence of data on the health of those that provide these eggs. This video was commissioned by Our Bodies Ourselves, as part of the organization’s ongoing efforts to increase public awareness on issues related to egg retrieval.

We Are Egg Donors is the first advocacy group for egg providers created by egg providers. The group invites egg providers to share their stories and welcomes them into the network.

Read Cool’s personal account, describing the organization’s commitment to ensuring egg providers are informed, supported, safe, and connected to agencies that will advocate for them.

Video: Deseos (“Longing”)

Deseos
By GIRE Mexico | 2017

GIRE, a Mexico-based organization that has studied, documented, published, and advocated on international recently released a documentary on the practice in 2017. “Deseos” or “Longing” follows Mirna, a divorced gestational mother with three of her own and shines a critical light on the lack of regulation around surrogacy in Mexico.

Visit GIRE’s website and read the organization’s latest report on surrogacy in Mexico. In it, GIRE offers a comprehensive overview of the current status of surrogacy, the scope of the debate around the practice, legal frameworks, cases, and recommendations. The last includes, for example:

  • Legislation that defines surrogacy as a contract between gestational mothers and intended parents.
  • Decriminalization of all the parties involved, including any criminalization based on nationality, sexual orientation, marital status, and age.
  • Quality and confidential health and legal care for gestational mothers.
  • Guarantees that costs related to pregnancy, birth, and postpartum be covered by intended parents (regardless of birth outcomes).
  • Contract revisions be contingent on the involvement of a competent notary/judge and consent of all parties.
  • Notifications of relevant state and federal authorities to avoid problems related to registration, legal parentage, and citizenship while contracts are valid or after birth.

Read the full report > 

Article: Ethical Case for Abolishing All Forms of Surrogacy

Ethical Case for Abolishing All Forms of Surrogacy
By Catherine Lynch | Sunday Guardian | Oct. 28, 2017

This is the fifth installment of an ongoing series called “Global Child Rights, and Wrongs,” focussing on global child rights within the field of reproductive technologies.

While these are often discussed in terms of the rights of adults to have children, there is very little discussion from the perspective of the child born of such technologies.

Dr. Lynch, an Australian lawyer and adoptee rights activist, addresses this gap with an essay on the ethics of surrogacy and an argument to ban all forms of the practice.

Here is an excerpt:

As an adoptee, I was removed at birth from my gestational mother, her breasts bound for three days in another room while I screamed for her, and my hospital records record my growing distress. Adoptees around the world testify to their battles with depression and rage, difficulties in trusting and attachment, and a profound sense of loss and grief caused by the loss of their mothers at birth. Scientific studies prove that maternal-neonate separation in the crucial months after birth disturbs the baby’s heart rate and sleep and other biological systems, predisposing the child to difficulties later in life which can include relationship and emotional difficulties, mental disorders and illnesses. In taking a child-centered view of surrogacy, we must take into account what we know of the trauma and confusion of separation from the natural family, especially from the birth mother, experienced by adoptees.

Read the full article >

Article: India Outlawed Commercial Surrogacy – Clinics Are Finding Loopholes

India Outlawed Commercial Surrogacy – Clinics Are Finding Loopholes
By Sharmila Rudrappa | The Conversation | Oct. 23, 2017

This roundup of the legal status of commercial surrogacy in India studies the effectiveness of bans, the responsive agility of surrogacy providers, and the ultimate impact on the human rights of gestational mothers.

Authored by Sharmila Rudrappa, a respected researcher and author in the field, it presents current arguments for and against criminalization. Exploring altruistic surrogacy, which is the only arrangement allowed in India at this time, the article ends with important questions on whether gestational mothers would be better protected if commercial transactions were toughly regulated rather than outlawed.

Read the full article >

Report: Toward a Strengthened Assisted Human Reproduction Act

Toward a Strengthened Assisted Human Reproduction Act
By Health Canada | July 11, 2017

This report tracks steps taken by the Government of Canada towards strengthening the country’s Assisted Human Reproduction Act and supporting regulation. It focuses on three specific areas: the safety of donor sperm and eggs; the process, scope, and documentation related to reimbursement; administration and enforcement.

The purpose of the document, according to its introduction, is to provide Canadians with an overview of key policy proposals that will help inform the development of regulations and engage citizens prior to finalizing policy. Several members of Impact Ethics participated in a public consultation (read the summary), including Françoise Baylis, co-editor of “Family Making: Contemporary Ethical Challenges.”

Read the full report >

Read a commentary on Health Canada’s efforts to reboot the Assisted Human Reproduction Act, contributed to the International Journal of Feminist Approaches to Bioethics by Francine Coeytaux (Co-Director of Pro-Choice Alliance for Responsible Research), Marcy Darnovsky (Executive Director of Center for Genetics and Society), Susan Berke Fogel (Co-Director of Pro-Choice Alliance for Responsible Research), and Emily Galpern (Consultant at Center for Genetics and Society).

Podcast: Is Egg Donation Safe?

Is Egg Donation Safe?
By Reveal | The Center for Investigative Reporting | June 1, 2017

 

Article: Surrogacy Problem Sneaks Across the Border

Surrogacy Problem Sneaks Across the Border
By The Nation | April 25, 2017

Following up on the recent arrest of a Thai national carrying multiple vials of human semen into Laos, this editorial provides a comprehensive overview of surrogacy laws in the region.

Thailand, for example, largely permits surrogacy between blood relatives; Cambodia’s temporary guidelines, which allow foreign intended parents to legally take their children out of the country, will soon be replaced with a permanent law; and Vietnam amended its Marriage and Family Law in 2015 to only allow “altruistic surrogacy”. Their proximity – see map alongside, with Thailand represented in white – and inconsistent law positions Laos and Myanmar as the new hubs on the block.

Read the full article >

Article: Thai Police Arrest Man Smuggling Semen into Laos

Thai Police Arrest Man Smuggling Semen into Laos
By BBC | April 21, 2017

After India, Nepal, Thailand, and Cambodia closed their doors to international commercial surrogacy, Laos is stepping up to the front of the line.

This article covers the recent arrest of a man carrying vials of human semen destined for a fertility clinic in the country’s capital. He admits having done so 12 times in the last year, making clear, yet again, the mobility of the practice across geographical borders and its adaptive agility in the face of changing laws.

Read the full article >

Podcast: Ethics and Emerging Technologies

Ethics and Emerging Technologies
By Mark Sackler | Seeking Delphi | March 30, 2017

Listen to James J. Hughes, director of The Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technologies on the ethics of emerging technologies – including those used for human gene editing – and the challenges to public policy in dealing with resulting social and economic changes.

Article: Green Light for Australians’ Surrogate Babies to Leave Cambodia

Green Light for Australians’ Surrogate Babies to Leave Cambodia
By Lindsay Murdoch | The Sydney Morning Herald | April 3, 2017

In this update from Cambodia, a number of Australian intended parents are now being allowed to leave the country with their children. To do so, they must prove a biological link to a child and obtain a gestational mother’s approval.

The article also outlines the case against Australian nurse Tammy Davis-Charles, who is currently in jail in Cambodia for facilitating surrogacy arrangements and charging Australian intended parents $US 50,000 per child. If sentenced, Davis-Charles could spend up to two years in prison.

Read the full article >