Tag: ARTs

Japan Should Update Laws on Assisted Reproduction: Yomiuri Shimbun

The Straits Times | December 7, 2020

This Editorial in the Straits Times asserts that legislation in Japan must keep up with advances in assisted reproductive technology, including regulation to safeguard babies born and to address egg and sperm donation and surrogacy. The Editorial raises issues of ethics, commercialization and eugenics and calls on the application of a supplementary provision of a new special law that would study a range of issues and enact legal measures related to assisted reproduction.

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‘Equal Parentage’ Bill Is Signed Into Law by Governor

By Katie Mulvaney | Providence Journal | July 21, 2020

On July 21, the Equal Parentage bill was passed in Rhode Island, giving same-sex couples, unmarried people, and others who have children through assisted reproduction technologies an avenue to establish legal parentage at birth. The bill eliminates the need for non-birth parents to complete “second-parent” adoptions, addresses some aspects of surrogacy arrangements, and provides guidance for children conceived through sperm donation to find information on the donor when they turn 18.

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The Stranded Babies of Kyiv and the Women who Give Birth for Money

By Oksana Grytsenko | The Guardian | June 15, 2020

This article exposes the scale and problematic nature of the surrogacy industry in Ukraine, with the COVID crisis exacerbating conditions even more. The ombudsman for children is now calling for a ban on commercial surrogacy in Ukraine for foreign couples. Without sufficient regulation and protections in place, surrogates in Ukraine are beginning to self-organize on social media, where they share advice and warnings about agencies, and expose increased mistreatment during the pandemic.

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Surrogacy, Assisted Reproduction, and COVID: Stark Problems, Underlying Concerns

By Emily Galpern | Center for Genetics and Society | May 27, 2020

This blogpost provides an overview of the numerous unsettling situations that have arisen since COVID-19 changed the landscape of assisted reproduction and international surrogacy.  It shows how the pandemic is illuminating pre-existing problems related to assisted reproduction and surrogacy, highlights the need for stronger regulations, and calls for input from all who will be affected.

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Are Surrogate and IVF Babies ‘Essential’ in a Pandemic?

By Amrita Pande | Mail & Guardian | May 22, 2020

In this opinion piece in South Africa’s Mail & Guardian, Amrita Pande raises the question of whether assisted reproduction is an essential service in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic. Pande notes how infertility professional associations in the US, Europe, and South Africa initially called for suspension of new or non-urgent fertility treatments in response to the COVID crisis, and then reversed course under pressure. She points to preventable causes of infertility in South Africa, disproportionate impacts on Black and poor women, and how public resources are going to private healthcare and high-tech individualized treatments.

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100 Babies Stranded in Ukraine After Surrogate Births

By Andrew E. Kramer | New York Times | May 16, 2020

This article not only covers the situation in Ukraine, where at least 100 babies born to surrogates are stranded in a hotel, but also provides background on surrogacy practices in a country at war and the poorest nation in Europe.

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What We Don’t Know About I.V.F.

By Maya Dusenbery | New York Times | April 16, 2020

Even though in vitro fertilization (IVF) has been around for more than 40 years, we have limited information about the long-term health impacts of egg retrieval. While this article—republished from 2019, does not talk about surrogacy, it illuminates a topic relevant to most surrogacy arrangements, in which gestational surrogates undergo IVF to carry a child for someone else.

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International Surrogacy and COVID-19

By Alison Motluck | HeyReproTech | March 24, 2020

The threat of COVID-19 has affected the lives of many, including people involved in international surrogacy arrangements. As this article explains, international travel restrictions, quarantine requirements, and limits on returning home with their newborn children are all realities people in surrogacy relationships have faced as the pandemic has spread.

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COVID-19 Throws A Wrench Into Surrogacy (Along With Everything Else In The World)

By Ellen Trachman | Above The Law | March 18, 2020

Above the Law highlights how the COVID-19 pandemic is changing the legal landscape of international surrogacy. Read how delayed agreements, changes to physical contact guidelines, and travel restrictions are affecting surrogates, egg providers, and intended parents.

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Article: Do IVF and Other Infertility Tech Lead to Health Risks for the Baby? Maybe.

Do IVF and Other Infertility Tech Lead to Health Risks for the Baby? Maybe.
By Mara Gordon | National Public Radio | Sept. 19, 2018

This article explores new research, published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology, on children conceived through certain infertility treatments and their risk for cardiovascular disease. While the study’s authors indicate that the findings are preliminary, they encourage families using infertility treatments to be vigilant about screening their children and mitigating other risk factors, such as smoking, obesity, and a sedentary lifestyle.

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In 2012, the same team of scientists published a paper showing that 65 healthy children  born with the help of ART were more likely than their peers to have early signs of problematic blood vessels.

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