Surrogacy360

Article: UK Court of Appeals Rules that Baby Should Live With Surrogate

UK Court of Appeals Rules that Baby Should Live With Surrogate
By NGA Law

This blog is published by a UK-based law firm that specializes in modern family law and has, reportedly, handled many of the UK’s leading cases on surrogacy, assisted reproduction, and LGBT families. It analyzes the rejection of an appeal by a same-sex couple for parental rights and physical custody of their surrogate-delivered child, currently living with the gestational mother in compliance with an earlier court order. It discusses the significance of the case for same-sex intended parents living in the UK and provides suggestions to address “common fears” related to perceptions that surrogacy arrangements frequently involve legal disputes and can result in gestational mothers being granted parental rights.

Read the full blog >

Another case – the fifth in the UK – recently tested the country’s legal framework around international commercial surrogacy. In November, a court ruled against a gestational mother’s attempt to keep the child, but complicated matters by granting her restricted visitation. While UK courts have historically decided parental disputes based on the best interests of the child, there are calls for more consistency when such disputes emerge. All eyes are on the Law Commission, which is expected to tackle the issue in the near future. Watch this space.

‘We Simply Don’t Know’: Egg Donors Face Uncertain Long-term Risks

By Emily Woodruff | STAT | January 28, 2017

There has been little research on the long-term health outcomes for egg donors. Most of the research that has been conducted on egg extraction has focused on people undergoing in vitro fertilization (or IVF)—an entirely different population. This reality begs the question posed by one of the patients quoted in this article: “How informed can your consent be if we don’t have the information?”

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Book: Modern Families: Stories of Extraordinary Journeys to Kinship

Modern Families: Stories of Extraordinary Journeys to Kinship
By Joshua Gamson | NYU Press | 2015
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From the publisher’s website:

From adoption and assisted reproduction, to gay and straight parents, coupled and single, and multi-parent families, the stories in Modern Families explain how individuals make unconventional families by accessing a broad range of technological, medical and legal choices that expand our definitions of parenting and kinship. Joshua Gamson introduces us to a child with two mothers, made with one mother’s egg and the sperm of a man none of them has ever met; another born in Ethiopia, delivered by his natural grandmother to an orphanage after both his parents died in close succession, and then to the arms of his mother, who is raising him solo.

These tales are deeply personal and political. The process of forming these families involved jumping tremendous hurdles—social conventions, legal and medical institutions—with heightened intention and inventiveness, within and across multiple inequities and privileges. Yet each of these families, however they came to be, shares the same universal joys that all families share.

From the book’s foreword by Melissa Harris-Perry, Maya Angelou Presidential Chair and Professor of Politics and International Affairs at Wake Forest University and, formerly, host of MSNBC’s Melissa Harris-Perry:

These family making journeys raise hard questions, but offer no formulaic answers. These are stories of choices made consciously and sometimes uncomfortably to create and combine lives amidst the messy human realities of desire, commerce, science, faith, community and family. This collection is not a roadmap; it is a companion for all those who choose to navigate the world of modern kinship.

Article: Ovarian Hyperstimulation Syndrome – It’s Time to Reverse the Trend

Ovarian Hyperstimulation Syndrome – It’s Time to Reverse the Trend
By Dr. Geeta Nargund | BioNews | Dec. 5, 2016

screen-shot-2016-12-12-at-2-58-45-pm In this commentary, Dr. Geeta Nargund at CREATE Fertility, discusses the increase in ovarian hyperstimulation syndrome (OHSS) reported by fertility clinics in the United Kingdom.

In the author’s opinion, a report published by the Human Fertilization and Embryology Authority (HFEA) “obfuscates” real data – a 40 percent rise in hospital admissions with severe OHSS. She suggests the HFEA prioritize this “alarming statistic” and focus on reversing the trend, offering the following recommendations: a reduced dose of stimulation followed by GnRH agonist to trigger ovulation, with an option of cryopreservation of all embryos; and abandoning the use of the “long downregulation” protocol, employed in many IVF treatment cycles, and a switch to antagonist cycles.

In line with others in the field, Nargund also emphasizes the need for informed consent – placing the responsibility for this on providers – and rigorous documentation of the effects of stimulation protocols (including the drugs and dosages used).

Read the full commentary >

Report: The Surrogacy (Regulation) Bill, 2016

The Surrogacy (Regulation) Bill, 2016
By PRS Legislative Research | 2016

In case there were any doubts, this short overview of the regulation in India is a helpful crib sheet on the legal status of commercial surrogacy in the country. Three main conditions included in the bill include:

The intending couple must be Indian citizens and married for at least five years with at least one of them being infertile. The surrogate mother has to be a close relative who has been married and has had a child of her own.

No payment other than reasonable medical expenses can be made to the surrogate mother. The surrogate child will be deemed to be the biological child of the intending couple.

Central and state governments will appoint appropriate authorities to grant eligibility certificates to the intending couple and the surrogate mother. These authorities will also regulate surrogacy clinics.

Read the full overview and analysis >

For background and information on preceding legislation (2012), read BioNews on visa restrictions imposed by the Indian government on foreign intended parents.

Report: Assisted Reproductive Technology National Summary Report

Assisted Reproductive Technology National Summary Report
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention | October 2016

The data for this report come from the 458 U.S. fertility clinics in operation in 2014. It is organized into the following sections.

Section 1: Information on the different types of ART cycles performed in 2014.
Section 2: Information on ART cycles that used only fresh non-donor eggs or embryos.
Section 3: Information on the ART cycles that used only frozen non-donor embryos.
Section 4: Information on the ART cycles that used only donated eggs or embryos.
Section 5: Information on trends in the number of ART procedures and measures of success over the past 10 years, from 2005 through 2014.

Read the full report >

Report: Ethical Use of Assisted Reproductive Technologies

Ethical Use of Assisted Reproductive Technologies
National Perinatal Association | December 2015

Professor Michele Goodwin at the University of Minnesota and Judy Norsigian have described the “raw and debilitating physical, emotional and spiritual challenges created by deeply personal and life-altering procedures” experienced by some women seeking ART and support the need for additional regulation. In addition to the invasive processes involved in conception, the ethical quandary created by a recommendation for fetal reduction and the emotional toll on women and couples may be profound and is incompletely studied. Professor Goodwin asserts there is a “much needed public discourse that could also become the clarion call for regulation of a field of medicine that has thus far unsuccessfully regulated itself.”

This position paper by the National Perinatal Association addresses the ethical use of assisted reproductive technologies. It emphasizes reducing disparities in care provided to mothers and children and makes helpful recommendations, including: single embryo transfers, counseling from a multi-disciplinary team, informed consent prior to treatment, and access to comprehensive obstetric care during and after treatment.

Read the full document >

Initiative: Responsible Surrogacy

Responsible Surrogacy is a web-based project created by a group of volunteers in Israel. It provides people considering surrogacy with information on the ethical and practical aspects of an arrangement. The information is available in Hebrew and English.

The site is facilitated by intended parents who believe “the ethical responsibility for the surrogacy process lies with the intended parents.” From the About page:

Surrogacy is a difficult process for all involved in many aspects, and it is often initiated after much hardship for the intended parents. For those in need of it, surrogacy is commonly the last hope to raise a family. They reach it exhausted but with a sense of purpose. Perhaps that is why in many cases we have encountered upon building this information center there was a tendency of intended parents to neglect one of the most important points – on the other side of this process is a person.

The website functions like a database, providing information on issues related to the health and well-being of gestational mothers, including the fairness of the contract, monetary and legal considerations, and the woman’s relationship with the intended parents.

The site’s creators believe these – and other – aspects should be considered irrespective of where an arrangement is formed, but intended parents must also seek current and accurate country-specific information for guidance.

responsible-surrogacy-goals

Initiative: We Are Egg Donors

We Are Egg Donors was founded by three egg providers. The platform enables egg providers from more than 12 countries to connect with one another, share their experiences, and access evidence-based research on egg retrieval. We Are Egg Donors operates a Facebook group for approved members and an informative blog.

By sharing our stories, we create a meaningful conversation and advocate for causes that matter to egg donors.

With organizations like Our Bodies Ourselves, We Are Egg Donors is actively calling for long-term studies on the health effects of egg retrieval. Co-founder Raquel Cool has written extensively about her experience for OBOS’s blog.

Others members of the 1000+ strong We Are Egg Donors network have also shared their stories. In a candid photo essay, Christine, a first time egg donor, walks us through every step of her egg retrieval journey. In an interview describing efforts to access her medical records from the clinic, Rae cautions that egg providers may not be protected by HIPAA (the United States legislation that provides data privacy and security provisions for safeguarding medical information). Lauren shares their experience of stigma, as a queer egg provider navigating a heteronormative medical space, while Carter shares her own as an egg provider within and for someone in her family.

We Are Egg Donors invites other egg providers to share their stories and welcomes them into the network.

Article: Do Women Who Donate Their Eggs Run a Health Risk?

Do Women Who Donate Their Eggs Run a Health Risk?
By Sandra G. Boodman | The Washington Post | June 20, 2016

A transaction once shrouded in secrecy, the Internet now hosts a thriving and competitive marketplace for donors, largely supplanting leaflets on college bulletin boards and ads in campus newspapers, the traditional methods of recruiting fertile young women. Payment varies, currently starting at about $3,500 per cycle and sometimes exceeding $50,000, depending on the location of the clinic or egg brokerage and the donor’s characteristics. An Ivy League education, Asian descent (there is a paucity of donors), exceptional looks and a previous donation that led to a birth command higher reimbursement.

This article provides a comparison between the experience of an egg provider who did not suffer any complications as a result of the process with another woman who was diagnosed with stage 4 metastatic breast cancer after 10 rounds of egg retrieval.

It includes interviews with noted experts, including Timothy R. B. Johnson, chair of the department of obstetrics and gynecology at the University of Michigan School of Medicine, and Judy Stern, professor of pathology and obstetrics and gynecology at Dartmouth, who oversees a voluntary database called the Infertility Family Research Registry.

Read the full article >