Gay Fatherhood In The Land of Dolce & Gabbana

Fashion designer Domenico Dolce proved his good taste stops at the edge of the runway when he told Italian magazine Panorama that “children of chemistry” (more commonly known as children born through surrogacy) are “synthetic children.” His comments sparked an international uproar; Elton John, whose own sons were born to a surrogate, led a boycott against the Dolce & Gabbana brand. Yet in Dolce’s native Italy, his opinion that “the only family is the traditional one” is no extremist position. Rather, it’s one that’s entrenched in law, with both surrogacy and gay adoption illegal in Italy.

“Surrogacy is such a taboo topic in Europe,” Claudio Rossi Marcelli, the author of “Hello Daddy!”, about how he and his partner Manlio Sanna welcomed twin girls through an American surrogate, told GayswithKids.com. “It’s always very theoretical: about principles, about ethics, moral issues. But when you put faces onto people, it all becomes more human. People change their minds so quickly.”

Luigi Codecasa agrees. When he welcomed his twins Pietro and Silvia, 7, the Milan-based doctor was delighted at the way his community rallied behind his new family. Codecasa recalls showing his local baker the sonogram of his two children, who were conceived with a lesbian friend. The baker was shocked that a gay man would have children, Codecasa says, but today, Pietro and Silvia are her little VIPs.

“She is always inviting them to the back of the shop and giving them pizzas or croissants for free,” he says proudly. “It’s the same in the street market. Both the butcher and the grocer go crazy for the kids.” The butcher’s wife even confided in Codecasa that she had conceived through artificial insemination. “I can tell you because I know you will understand me,” she said.

Codecasa is the founder of Papà Arcobaleno (Rainbow Dads), a Milan-based group of more than 150 gay fathers and prospective fathers who are located across Italy and beyond. Through their Facebook page, they share support and parenting tips with their members and other curious gay dads internationally. Codecasa contactedGaysWithKids.com via Facebook a few months ago.

Through Papà Arcobaleno, Codecasa met Andrea Lorenzato, a 36-year-old sales rep and new father to an 8-month-old baby girl. Lorenzato agrees that Italian law is out of step with the spirit of the people. “The community is behaving differently than what the law says,” he notes. Along with his partner, Francesco Ineppo, he is a new father to an 8-month-old baby girl, Teresa, whom they welcomed through a surrogate. This April, Teresa will be baptized in a Catholic church. “The law of the church could say that they don’t approve of gay people,” Lorenzato says. “But at the end of the day no one is going to tell you, ‘I am not going to respect this little baby.’”

Despite the momentum in the streets, the Italian government, currently lead by centre-left prime minister Matteo Renzi, hasn’t budged when it comes to updating laws for gay families. “Italians have zero civic sense,” Marcelli says. “That’s why the country is such a mess. Everyone is about their own interests. Even if they are personally okay with being gay and being a gay parent they don’t go out and make it a political statement. So the political parties don’t feel that urge to put it in the political agenda.”

Under pressure from the European Union, civil unions for gay couples are expected to be legalized in some fashion by May of this year while mayors of Italian cities such as Rome, Milan and Florence have already gone rogue by recognizing the marriages of gay Italians who wed abroad. However, for gay men, the type of international surrogacy Dolce criticized is one of the few ways they can realize their dream of fatherhood.

Even then it’s a minefield of legal loopholes and prohibitive expenses. Lorenzato and Ineppo immediately struck countries such as India, Thailand and China from their lists when searching for a surrogate because of concerns surrounding how the women might be treated. “We didn’t want this journey to create sadness for someone else,” Lorenzato says. They were looking closely at the Philippines, but backed off at the advice of a lawyer. “There was the possibility that one day the mother of this baby could wake up and say, ‘I want this baby back, give me money,’” he says. “And this was not a solution that we could consider.”

Like many gay Italians looking to become parents, they ultimately found their surrogate in California. Teresa was conceived on their first try and had a perfectly healthy gestation. Then, three months before her due date, the daddies-to-be received a text from their surrogate’s husband. “We are in the hospital. The baby will be born in three hours by C-section. Come here.”

They were on the first plane out of Venice the next morning, and when they arrived at the hospital in Redwoods, Calif., they found a child fighting for her life. “You see this very little baby with all these tubes, all these computers and machines around her,” Lorenzato remembers. The couple tried to prepare themselves for the worst, telling each other, “We’ve survived so far without this baby.” “But it’s impossible,” Lorenzato says, “because your heart is inside that crib.”

Teresa was in the hospital for two months before she was well enough to travel back to Lorenzato and Ineppo’s home in Vicenza, 45 minutes west of Venice. Today, she is a model child. “She’s sleeping all night from 8 o’clock in the evening to 6 o’clock in the morning,” Lorenzato says. “So far she’s so good. We are expecting her to wake up one day and say, I am going to make your life a nightmare.”

Surrogacy is not an option for everyone, however. “Unfortunately there’s an economic aspect to the situation that doesn’t allow all gay couples to become dads,” he says. Expenses for an international couple using a California surrogate can range from $70,000 to more than $91,000 (not including insurance). Fees cover everything from psychological screening to agency fees to a housekeeping allowance for the surrogate.

Co-parenting is another option. Codecasa was lucky enough to meet Alessendra di Minno, a gay woman who was also dreaming of having a child. They spent three months getting to know each other, discussing their views on everything from religion to education before they agreed to try to conceive a child they could co-parent.

For five years they tried what Codecasa calls their “homemade attempts,” with a turkey baster. They also saw a doctor for artificial insemination. They finally conceived on Christmas Day and on August 15 welcomed not one but two babies: Pietro and Silvia. Today di Minno and Codecasa take turns co-parenting: the children’s permanent residence is with their biological mother, but they spend Wednesday nights and one afternoon a week with Codecasa in between soccer practices and gymnastics classes, as well as every other weekend.

Despite what Dolce voiced about “traditional families,” Marcelli believes it’s precisely because family values are so entrenched in the culture that Italians are more willing to embrace gay parents in their communities. “Paradoxically, it’s even easier to be gay parents than a gay couple,” says Marcelli. “When you have kids you can show your neighbours that their lifestyle is so similar to yours. When you have kids, the schools, the doctors, they welcome you into the family club.”

Despite this secret pass, the lack of legal protection has meant Marcelli and his partner Manlio Sanna have had to improvise. Only one father can be listed on the child’s birth certificate, and with their 7-year-old twins Clelia and Maddalena, they decided that Marcelli would be the biological father: his flexible schedule as a professional writer would allow him more time at home during the children’s infancy. But when it came time to conceive their third child, a son named Bartolomeo, now 3, Marcelli was uncomfortable.

“I always felt that the lack of a legislation over the legal status of our family gave me a lot of power over the legal status of our kids,” he says. “I always told Manlio, ‘One day I could just freak out and decide I don’t want to see you anymore. I have the power to keep these girls from you.’ I always felt this was really disproportionate. When it was the second time around I said, ‘Let’s make you the legal father of this third kid so we’re all tangled and creating a guarantee.’ It’s kind of a weird thought because you don’t want to think about the worst.”

However, the issue highlights why it is so important for parental rights not only to be informally recognized by knowing neighbors, but also to be enshrined in law. “They say that the real fight for gay marriage is the fight for gay divorce,” Marcelli says. “When all of a sudden things go wrong you need the law to protect you from becoming the worst part of you.”

If only Domenico Dolce had a law like that to protect his foot from getting stuck in his mouth.

Sources: http://www.fenuxe.com/2015/03/19/gay-fatherhood-in-the-land-of-dolce-gabbana/

Strict Rules for Commissioning Surrogacy: Union Minister Kiren Rijiju

NEW DELHI:  Rules for foreign nationals intending to visit India for commissioning surrogacy has been tightened by the government and only those couples who have been duly married for at least two years will be allowed to visit the country for the purpose.

Minister of State for Home Kiren Rijiju said under the new guidelines, appropriate visa category for foreign nationals coming to India for commissioning surrogacy will be 'medical visa'.

He said it will be necessary in such cases to ensure that the surrogate mother is not cheated and therefore such a visa would be granted if a foreign man and woman are duly married and the marriage is sustained at least for two years.

A letter from the embassy of the foreign country in India or the foreign ministry of the country should be enclosed with the visa application stating clearly that the country recognises surrogacy and the child to be born to the commissioning couple through the Indian surrogate mother will be permitted entry into their country as a biological child of the couple commissioning surrogacy.

"The couple will furnish an undertaking that they would take care of the child born through surrogacy. The couple should produce a duly notarised agreement between the applicant couple and the prospective Indian surrogate mother," Mr Rijiju said.

Sources: http://www.ndtv.com/india-news/strict-rules-for-commissioning-surrogacy-union-minister-kiren-rijiju-747684

First successful applicants identified as Vietnam legalizes surrogacy

Just two days after non-commercial surrogacy services were legalized in Vietnam, at least three married couples have been confirmed as being eligible, a top official said Tuesday.

They were among nearly 20 couples who had applied to the Hanoi-based National Hospital of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Deputy Health Minister Nguyen Viet Tien, also the director of the hospital’s reproduction assistance center, said.

The Hanoi hospital is among three to get the health ministry’s permission to offer surrogacy services on a trial basis starting Sunday, the others being the Hue Central Hospital and Tu Du Obstetrics Hospital in Ho Chi Minh City.

Tien said while the hospitals have already mastered surrogacy techniques, the biggest challenge is to find eligible surrogates who voluntarily sign up and satisfy legal and health requirements.

Vietnamese laws state that the surrogate must be a sister or cousin not more than thrice removed of either the husband or wife, and should have successfully given birth to a child.

In fact, for the first three couples it would be their sister or sister-in-law all aged between 25 and 35 acting as surrogates, the official said.

Nguyen Huy Quang, chief of the health ministry’s Legal Department, said a cycle of in-vitro fertilization costs US$2,000-3,000 including drugs in Vietnam, while in other countries in the neighbourhood it costs $8,000-12,000.

Under the amended Family and Marriage Law passed last June, surrogacy is allowed for legally married childless couples if doctors confirm the mother is unable to give birth even with technological support.

It strictly bans surrogacy for commercial purposes, stipulating that the arrangement must be voluntary on the part of all involved and follow IVF regulations.

With around 7.7 percent of married couples of reproductive age being infertile in Vietnam, the new law has been hailed as being “humane.”

Sources: http://www.thanhniennews.com/health/first-successful-applicants-identified-as-vietnam-legalizes-surrogacy-39956.html

Citizenship to Children Born to a Surrogate Indian Mother

The Ministry of Home Affairs has developed guidelines for the foreign nationals intending to visit India for commissioning surrogacy. These guidelines have been notified vide MHA letter no. F No.25022/74/2011-F.I dated 9th July 2012 and have also been circulated to all the Indian missions/posts.

The following provisions have been made under these guidelines for the foreign nationals coming to India for commissioning surrogacy:

1. The appropriate VISA category for the foreign nationals coming to India for commissioning surrogacy will be Medical VISA.

2. It will also be necessary in such cases to ensure that the surrogate mother is not cheated. Therefore such a visa may only be granted if the following conditions are fulfilled:

(i) The foreign man and woman are duly married and the marriage should have sustained at least for two years.

(ii) A letter from the Embassy of the foreign country in India or the Foreign Ministry of the country should be enclosed with the Visa application stating clearly that (a) the country recognizes surrogacy and (b) the child/children to be born to the commissioning couple through the Indian surrogate mother will be permitted entry into their country as a biological child/children of the couple commissioning surrogacy.

(iii) The couple will furnish an undertaking that they would take care of the child/children born through surrogacy.

(iv) The treatment should be done only at one of the registered Assisted Reproduce Technology (ART) clinics recognized by ICMR. (The list of such clinics will be shared with MEA from time to time).

(v) The couple should produce a duly notarized agreement between the applicant couple and the prospective Indian surrogate mother.

3. If any of the above conditions are not fulfilled, the visa application shall be rejected.

4. Before the grant of visa, the foreign couple need to be told that before leaving India for their return journey, exit permission from FRRO/FRO would be required. Before granting exit, the FRRO/FRO will see whether the foreign couple is carrying a certificate from the ART clinic concerned regarding the fact that the child/children have been duly taken custody of by the foreigner and that the liabilities towards the Indian surrogate mother have been fully discharged as per the agreement. A copy of the birth certificate(s) of the surrogate child/children will be retained by the FRRO/FRO along with photocopies of the passport and visa of the foreign parents.

This was stated by the Minister of State for Home Affairs, Shri Kiren Rijiju in a written reply to a question by Shri Sanjay Raut in the Rajya Sabha today.

Sources: http://www.business-standard.com/article/government-press-release/citizenship-to-children-born-to-a-surrogate-indian-mother-115031800541_1.html

Our children are real, and so are their donors

“You are born to a mother and a father — or at least that’s how it should be,” the clothing designer Domenico Dolce recently said, stirring up a bit of controversy. “I call children of chemistry, synthetic children. Rented uterus, semen chosen from a catalog.”

Synthetic children? Ouch. My first reaction was to extend an invitation to Signores Dolce and Gabbana to come over and babysit my little cyborgs for a few hours, so that they could experience first-hand their screaming, their whining, and all of their “artificial” bodily fluids.

But it’s easy to be angry, and I don’t want us, in our rejection of these hurtful statements, to shut down an important conversation. While singular in their disdain, Dolce and Gabbana express an unease that many of us, gay and straight, have around third-party reproduction. Is it ethical to pay a donor or a surrogate? Should a donor be able to remain forever anonymous?

As a lesbian parent, of course I want my children to feel that they are as equal and deserving as anyone else. Equality isn’t sameness, though, and I need there to be space for us to discuss the ways that our family is fundamentally different, and how our reproductive choices impact the lives of others.

I don’t think it’s wrong for gay men (or anyone else) to have children via egg donor and surrogate, but we mustn’t fail to expand the conversation beyond them and their right to pursue parenthood. The egg donor has the right to choose what to do with her oocytes, free from extreme financial pressure. The surrogate also has the right to choose freely if and when to use her womb. When the surrogate in question is an impoverished woman in another country, and the amount of money she’s being offered could permanently house her entire family, it’s difficult to argue that she has much of a choice.

And the sperm donor. My kids’ donor. He, too, has a right to decide what happens to his cells. I don’t know why he decided to donate. I do know that most of the donors in the catalog were actors, artists, musicians and/or students. I assumed that they were looking for supplemental income, not a way to feed themselves, and that no coercion was involved. Still, I am uneasy about the fact that money traded hands in order for my children’s DNA to be complete.

I’m not alone. Many countries, like Australia and the UK, prohibit payment to gamete donors, and don’t allow for entirely anonymous donation. Italy’s law, which is particularly discriminatory, has just recently allowed for the use of donor sperm or eggs at all—for straight couples only. One unintended effect of these prohibitions is that those who can afford to do so look abroad for donors and surrogates, leading to exploitative situations like we’re now seeing in India and Thailand. This also, of course, leads to a booming business here in the U.S., where few restrictions are in place.

There’s a line in the sand when it comes to reproductive technology, and it isn’t IVF. It’s a line that only some infertile couples choose to cross, but all of us who are queer must: involving a third (and sometimes, fourth) person into the act of reproduction. Whether it’s birth parents, a gamete donor, or a gestational surrogate, no technology yet can make us parents in the absence of another person’s body. These people become part of our families, if only as a spectral presence in our children’s lives. I, for one, don’t want my equality to rely on pretending they don’t exist.

Marie Holmes lives in New York City with her family. Her short fiction and poetry have appeared in several literary magazines.

Sources: http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/parenting/wp/2015/03/18/our-children-are-real-and-so-are-their-donors/

The Newspeak of gender-neutral pronouns

Rather than reducing the English language to pale neutrality, let’s enrich it.

In our brave new world of sex and gender experimentation, the English language is teetering on the edge of a lingusitic precipice. We lack names for the new relationships which are being created.

Take, for instance, 24-year-old Kyle Casson, a gay supermarket worker in England. He was desperate to have a child (but not, obviously, a wife). His mother Anne-Marie volunteered to be a surrogate mother for his baby. So Kyle shopped around for a donor with the right hair and eye colour and organised fertilisation and implantation at an IVF clinic. Eight months ago, 46-year-old Anne-Marie gave birth to Miles by C-section. It is believed to be the first time that a single man has had a baby through surrogacy in the UK.

The relationships of these three people are tangled, to say the least. Anne-Marie is the mother of Kyle, and both the mother and the grandmother of Miles. Miles is both the half-brother and the son of Kyle. Kyle is both the son and the ‘husband’, or at least partner, of Anne-Marie, who is already married to Alan Casson, who is Kyle’s step-father. We have no words for these relationships and they are becoming more and more common.

The kneejerk response has been a conservative one: reduce the number of nouns and pronouns. This is the course taken by the University of Vermont in the US, as the New York Times reported recently. In an effort to accommodate the frustrations of transgender students, it has created a new pronoun, ‘ze’, for students who do not want to identify as either male or female. Students can now choose their preferred pronoun in dealing with the university bureaucracy: the traditional he or she, ze, they, or ‘name only’.

But is this really the way forward? No doubt it will meet stiff resistance from people who remember that the aim of Newspeak, the language of George Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four, was to have as few words as possible:

‘Relative to our own, the Newspeak vocabulary was tiny, and new ways of reducing it were constantly being devised. Newspeak, indeed, differed from most all other languages in that its vocabulary grew smaller instead of larger every year. Each reduction was a gain, since the smaller the area of choice, the smaller the temptation to take thought.

‘Ultimately it was hoped to make articulate speech issue from the larynx without involving the higher brain centers at all.’

So I think you will agree that ze simply won’t cut the mustard.

Sources: http://www.spiked-online.com/newsite/article/the-newspeak-of-gender-neutral-pronouns/16787#.VQpe09KUfOw

This Woman Is Pregnant With Her Eleventh Surrogate Baby

Karla Kirby had her first two children when she was a young teenager, and even though they were unplanned, she instantly loved motherhood.

"It had been so easy for me to get pregnant and give birth, but what about the women who weren't so lucky?" she said to The Mirror. "The desperation those couples must feel was unimaginable. I had to help them."

It didn't take long for her to contact Childlessness Overcome Through Surrogacy (COTS), and get set up with a couple. In order to detach herself from the baby she would be carrying, Karla said that from the start, she defined herself as carrier, not the mother.

She got pregnant with her first surrogate baby in 2001 for Carol and Michael, a couple who badly wanted children, but Carol was infertile. When the time came to hand the baby over to his parents-to-be, Karla was happy to. "When I gave birth to a baby boy, Ethan, seeing the emotion on Carol's face confirmed I'd done the right thing. I held him first, as Carol and Michael didn't make it to the hospital in time for the birth, but handing him over wasn't heartbreaking, just rewarding. He was never mine to start with."

A year and a half later she was pregnant for another couple, and ended up having two daughters for them, just one year apart. And there was no stopping Karla: She gave birth in 2005, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2011, 2013, and lastly, in 2014. Believe it or not, each birth was natural. Although, she says she might be giving birth to her current baby through C-section because it has a low-lying placenta.

Karla has kept in contact with some of the children, two of them even took part in her wedding to her partner, Taz. Her sons completely accept the role she takes on for other families and haven't asked to meet their half siblings.

At 38 years old, 29 weeks pregnant with her 11th surrogate child, with two sons of her own and being the stepmother to Taz's daughter, she's thinking her surrogacy retirement may be around the corner. "But the truth is, I'm just not ready to stop. What I do helps to make people's dreams come true. You just can't put a price on that."

Sources: http://www.redbookmag.com/life/news/a20878/this-woman-is-pregnant-with-her-eleventh-surrogate-baby/

Single straight men turn to IVF to start families

Dr. Philip Werthman: 'The desire to be a parent is similar, whether you are gay, straight, in a relationship or not'

Designers Dolce & Gabbana recently referred to IVF children as 'synthetic'

A growing number of single straight men are reportedly turning to IVF and surrogates to become fathers.

In the wake of the recent Dolce & Gabbana controversy, in which the legendary designers praised "traditional" families and referred to IVF children as “synthetic,” the "Today" show spoke with a straight man who says the designers have it all wrong.

It was that assisted reproductive technology that allowed Dr. Conrad Cean, a 43-year-old straight man from New York City, to start a family. “I grew up in a very close family with two sisters, parents in Queens and cousins,” he told "Today." “We’ve always been a tight family and I always wanted children.”

Cean, who is a pain specialist, told the morning show his busy schedule has prevented him from finding the right woman -- but that was not going to foil his dream of becoming a father. Cean used his own sperm, IVF and a surrogate to welcome twins on Aug. 30, 2013. “I was ecstatic. It’s other worldly, worth a thousand bucks, a million bucks. It’s hard to put into words,” he said on "Today."

"Today" also spoke with Melissa Brisman, a prominent surrogacy lawyer, who says the trend of straight men turning to IVF continues to grow. “About five years ago we started seeing some single men and each year we see more and more single men coming to our office,” Brisman said.

Men are willing to pay well over $100,000 to have a baby through surrogacy, but the final cost depends on the number of IVF treatments necessary and how much is paid for by insurance.

“The desire to be a parent is similar, whether you are gay, straight, in a relationship or not,” Dr. Philip Werthman, director of the Center for Male Reproductive Medicine and Vasectomy Reversal in Los Angeles, told "Today." “For these men, they are getting older, they have the resources and the love to give and they want to go ahead. Technology gives them the ability to have children outside traditional means.”

Sources: http://www.hlntv.com/article/2015/03/17/single-straight-men-ivf-surrogates-become-fathers

Is Kim Kardashian looking for a surrogate mother?

Motherhood is a blissful experience and celebrity mum, Kim Kardashian sure knows it. She recently revealed that she might look for a surrogate mother to get a sibling for her daughter North West.

In an episode of ‘Keeping Up with the Kardashians,’ the American reality star confessed that she was exhausted and frustrated trying so hard every day for conception. Since results weren’t any satisfying, the TV personality decided to take a back seat and relax, as reported by a leading Magazine.

In the episode of ‘Keeping Up with the Kardashians,’ the 34-year-old star was seen lying down in bed as instructed by her doctor for 10-20 minutes after having sex with her rapper husband, Kanye West. The scientific explanation for this is that after orgasm, women release a powerful hormone called oxytocin, which helps in conception. So when a couple cuddles or rests for a few minutes after the act, it makes the woman feel comfortable, safe and help in the production and sustenance of oxytocin — thus, helping a woman conceive easily.

Previously, Kardashian admitted that she and the ‘Gold Digger’ rapper husband were struggling to have their second baby even after having sex 500 times a day.

What is surrogacy?
The word ‘surrogate’ means substitute or replacement and a surrogate mother is one who lends her uterus to another couple so that they can have a baby. Surrogacy is popular for those who can’t conceive children the ‘natural way.’ The most common reason people opt for a surrogate is when the woman is missing a uterus. But for couples who have had babies in the past but still opt for surrogacy, like Kim and Kanye, the reasons could be different. When a couple opts for surrogacy, they do so only after they have exhausted all their options.

What are the different kinds of surrogacy?
There are two main kinds of surrogacy:
1. Where the surrogate mother provides the egg: In this case, the surrogate is inseminated artificially with the husband’s sperm. Here, the infertile woman has no genetic relationship to the baby. This was called traditional surrogacy and is illegal in most parts of the world. Here are the

2. Where the infertile woman provides the egg: The egg is then either transferred to the surrogate mother by GIFT (gamete intra-fallopian transfer) along with her husband’s sperm, or the egg is fertilised in the woman’s uterus by IVF with her husband’s sperm. After fertilisation occurs, the embryo is transferred into the surrogate’s uterus, which then acts as an incubator for the next nine months.

If the woman does not have any eggs, it is possible to perform donor egg surrogacy, using an egg donor. Certain guidelines have been laid down to try and minimise the misuse of the surrogacy technique.

However, Kim and Kanye aren’t the only celebrity couples who are opting for surrogacy. There have been others who opted for the procedure to be blessed with a child. Closer home, in the recent past we have heard of Bollywood actors Shahrukh Khan and his wife Gauri Khan opt surrogacy to have a third child. Also, Aamir Khan and Kiran Rao opted surrogacy to birth their child.

Sources: http://www.thehealthsite.com/news/is-kim-kardashian-looking-for-a-surrogate-mother/

Mother who is pregnant with her ELEVENTH surrogate child has given away ten babies... but now her wife wants her to retire

• Karla Kirby is now pregnant with her eleventh surrogate child
• Chef says she gets enormous delight from helping others have children
• Conceives using her own eggs and sperm of father-to-be

Many pregnant women worry about sleepless nights and how they will juggle the demands of a newborn with daily life.

But for Karla Kirby, 38, her pregnancy is simply filled with gleeful anticipation of giving her new baby away.

For the chef, who lives in north Lincolnshire, is currently pregnant with her eleventh child, and as a surrogate mother, has already waved goodbye to ten biological children of her own.

In an interview with The Mirror, Karla said she decided to become a surrogate as she loved motherhood and was keen to help other people have a family of their own.

With two children of her own, and in her late teens, she overheard a conversation where people were discussing surrogacy and decided to contact the organisation Childlessness Overcome Through Surrogacy (COTS) to find out more.

After a counselling session to make sure she was ready, she opted to be a 'straight surrogate' using her own eggs and the intended father's sperm which she artificially inseminated herself.

Karla chose to help a couple where the wife was infertile, and became pregnant after the eighth attempt, with her first surrogate child, Ethan, in 2001.

She said seeing the emotion on the new parents' faces when she handed over the baby helped her realise she had made the right decision and 18 months later, became a surrogate again, going on to give birth to Nia in 2002 and Carey in 2003.

Her own two children, who were now aged six and seven, always knew the children she was carrying would not be part of their family and there was no stopping her.

'I had Macey in 2005, Maddie in 2007, Tyler in 2008, George in 2009, Hayden in 2011, Saskia in 2013 and Oliver in 2014 - the parents all name their own babies,' she told The Mirror.

Karla has bounced back quickly from each drug-free birth, although at 29 weeks pregnant, she is currently facing the prospect of delivering her 11th surrogate child via caesarian section due to a low lying placenta.

Karla married her partner Taz last summer and praised her for her support during the last three pregnancies, although she said she was aware that her new wife would like her to retire from surrogacy.

She said it was strange to know there were ten children out there who shared her genes and she kept in touch with some of them including George and Macey who were flower girl and pageboy at her wedding.

However, she said while she was aware that each pregnancy brought with it additional health risks, she was not ready to give up.

'What I do helps to make people’s dreams come true - you just can’t put a price on that,' she added.

Sources: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-2997737/Mother-pregnant-ELEVENTH-surrogate-child-given-away-ten-babies-wife-wants-retire.html

Surrogacy now a global business yet no laws in Ireland cover it

Complications over babies’ status as birth mother is actual mother for legal reasons

Surrogacy is complex, often cumbersome and fraught with pitfalls, yet it is booming. It is becoming a global business, an expensive option for childless or same-sex couples seeking to start a family, although in the developing world little of the money involved trickles down to the surrogate mothers involved.

The extent of the trade is revealed by the figures compiled by Australian not-for-profit Families Through Surrogacy, which discourages exploitation of the women involved. Its survey suggests hundreds of Irish people have gone down the surrogacy route in recent years, although no one can say what the exact numbers are.

All of this points to the need for legislation to fill the legal vacuum that currently exists in Ireland. Unfortunately. Minister for Health Leo Varadkar’s proposed Bill on assisted legal reproduction can do nothing to regulate the practice of overseas surrogacy and will, by increasing regulation at home, drive demand for arrangements made in other countries.

Altruistic arrangements
There are no surrogacy laws in Ireland and there have been a tiny number of cases where surrogate mothers have given birth here. All involved altruistic arrangements, usually involving the sister of an infertile woman acting as a surrogate so she can start a family.

The problem is that such arrangements are unenforceable in the Irish courts and the surrogate is for legal purposes the actual mother, regardless of the wishes of the parties.

This position was confirmed by the Supreme Court last year, when the judges pointedly criticised the absence of legislation.

Overseas commercial arrangements are quicker and simpler and, in some countries, cheaper, so it is no surprise demand for them is growing. More than 40 people, most of them gay, attended an information meeting on surrogacy organised in Ireland by a US agency shortly before Christmas.

Marion Campbell, who represented the genetic parents in the Supreme Court case, says an increasing number of heterosexual couples are seeking information before going ahead with a surrogacy, although some leave it late, when the baby is almost due. Costs vary hugely, from over €150,000 in certain US states to €35,000 in India. The surrogate mother might receive about a tenth of these sums.

Emergency visas
A legal minefield awaits families returning to Ireland with children born by surrogacy. US-born children at least have an American passport, but most others need to apply for emergency travel visas from the Irish authorities.

Regularising their status involves an application for guardianship by the father and a declaration of parentage, before an Irish passport can be obtained. Success is not guaranteed – the father must have a genetic link to the child – and the process is time- consuming and costly (up to €14,000). Some children have ended up stateless.

The options available are constantly changing. Thailand last month banned commercial surrogacy following a scandal last year when an Australian couple allegedly rejected a child when they discovered he had Down syndrome. Greece, meanwhile, has opened up for surrogacy.

The issue is highly controversial and there have been calls in Ireland for a complete ban. Yet surrogacy remains a reality internationally and something will have to be done eventually to simplify the arrangements for children returning to Ireland.

Sources: http://www.irishtimes.com/news/health/surrogacy-now-a-global-business-yet-no-laws-in-ireland-cover-it-1.2143223

Bachelors turn to surrogates when biological clocks tick

Dr. Conrad Cean was nearing 40 when he felt his biological clock ticking — with no special someone to help him start a family.

So he did something that’s only recently become an option for single men: He turned to IVF and a surrogate halfway around the world to make a family of his own.

The 43-year-old pain specialist from New York City is now the proud, single father of 18-month-old twins, Konrad Fritz II and Kennedy-Josephine Marie. And he’s considering adding to his brood.

“I grew up in a very close family with two sisters, parents in Queens and cousins,” he told TODAY. “We’ve always been a tight family and I always wanted children.”

Cean's surrogate family takes on special poignancy in the wake of the blowup between British singer Elton John and the fashion designers Dolce & Gabbana after the founders recently championed "traditional" families and criticized fertility treatments in a magazine article.

Although no one keeps track, plenty of bachelors are intentionally having babies, though perhaps not “in the millions,” said Dr. Philip Werthman, director of the Center for Male Reproductive Medicine and Vasectomy Reversal in Los Angeles, who helps men optimize their sperm for IVF.

“The desire to be a parent is similar, whether you are gay, straight, in a relationship or not,” he said. “For these men, they are getting older, they have the resources and the love to give and they want to go ahead. Technology gives them the ability to have children outside traditional means.”

Cean said he planned to marry by 33 or 34, but his busy schedule interfered with finding the right woman.

“I had just finished my fellowship and was trying to get the lay of the land in the business of medicine,” said Cean. “I thought I would meet the right person, but I didn’t want to force anything.”

After two failed embryo transplantations in India in 2012, Cean went to Panama where for about two-thirds the cost of surrogacy in the United States, his twins were born on Aug. 30, 2013.

“I was ecstatic,” said Cean, who used his own sperm and is biologically related to the twins. “It’s other worldly, worth a thousand bucks, a million bucks. It’s hard to put into words.”

Stephanie Scott, executive director of Simple Surrogacy in Dallas, says she sees men like Cean “all the time.”

“Some of them have been focused on their careers for so long, they never got married,” she told TODAY. “A lot are afraid they have missed their opportunity and don’t want to wait and hope they’ll find the right woman.”

In gestational surrogacy, a woman is implanted with an embryo through in vitro fertilization using a donor egg and sperm. The baby is not genetically related to the surrogate mother.

In the United States, a man could spend up to $150,000 for all the medical costs, including $10,000 for an egg donor and $25,000 for the surrogate mother.

Scott arranged for Peter Gordon, a 48-year-old middle school teacher from Brimmer and May in Massachusetts, to have his twins with the help of a surrogate. His twins, 3-year-olds Noah and Olivia, were born in St. Louis.

“It’s funny,” he told TODAY. “I always said when I was in my 20s I would find the woman of my dreams and be married. But in my 30s I was at a junior boarding school and didn’t pay much attention to relationships. All of a sudden, I was in my 40s.”

Gordon said he made a “pact” with himself. If he reached 44 and was not married, he would look into an “alternative way” to have a family. The summer he turned 44, a relationship dissolved and he began to look into surrogacy, a lengthy project that, in the end, cost him $90,000.

“I had to qualify for loans and lines of credit,” he said. “I vetted agencies. I was meeting surrogates and getting an egg donor. It was all a blur. … Still, I was determined.”

The surrogate he chose was 23 and single, but had a child. “She made a decision she wanted to help others,” he said.

Gordon was in the delivery room at the full-term birth. The twins had a baby nurse and now a nanny, and he makes sure there are plenty of female influences in their lives.

“Oh my gosh,” he said. “It was the most unbelievable dream come true. It’s one of the hardest things I have ever done, but a lot of it is instinct. … From the minute they were born, they were in my arms and have been there ever since.”

Gordon says he still dates, when he can, but caring for twins is “tiring.”

“I still think it will happen,” he said of finding a wife. “And it would be great to share this with someone. … But that void I used to feel when I worked at boarding schools is no longer there, because my life is filled with my kids.”

As for Cean, he said that he, too, would still be open to marriage.

“I am definitely still looking,” he said. “My two biggest things are finding someone genuine and sweet with a kooky sense of humor. Someone offbeat.”

But his weekend family life is also full and rewarding: a Saturday gymboree class, naps and bottles, an afternoon walk in the park or drive out to Queens to see his parents, sister and cousins.

“My family was skeptical at first — obviously they would be,” said Cean. “But I have absolutely have no regrets.

“Hey, gay guys do it all the time. I told myself I was the straight half of a gay couple.”

Sources: http://www.today.com/health/bachelors-turn-surrogates-when-biological-clocks-tick-2D80552738

Vietnam accepts first 10 surrogacy requests under revised law

Nearly 100 applications for surrogacy have been sent to three designated hospitals, ten of which have met the required conditions, over the past three days after Vietnam’s new regulation on surrogacy on humanitarian grounds took effect, the Ministry of Health has said.

The new regulation is part of the revised Law on Marriage and Family that came into force on Mach 15, allowing people to act or have others act as surrogate mothers for humanitarian purposes on a voluntary basis after satisfying certain requirements, the ministry said.

The three major clinics assigned by the ministry to handle surrogacy cases are the National Hospital of Obstetrics and Gynecology in Hanoi, the Hue Central Hospital in the central city of Hue, and Tu Du Obstetrics Hospital in Ho Chi Minh City, said Nguyen Viet Tien, Deputy Minister of Health.

So far, ten of the surrogacy applications sent to the National Hospital of Obstetrics and Gynecology have met the requirements for surrogacy under the new regulation, the ministry said. 

Accordingly, these ten surrogacy cases have become the first to be approved in Vietnam, the ministry added.

Before the Law on Marriage and Family was amended last year, many infertile couples had to go abroad to have others act as surrogate mothers at a very high cost, Deputy Minister Tien said.

Therefore, the new regulation is a humanitarian one that gives childless couples the opportunity to have children, the official said.

About 500-700 couples have the need for others to act as surrogate mothers in Vietnam every year, according to national broadcaster Vietnam Television. 

A surrogacy is a case in which the embryo of a biological child of a woman and her spouse is implanted into the uterus of the recipient after it is created through the in-vitro fertility technique, the ministry said.

Hospitals that can perform the in-vitro fertility technique are fully capable of handling surrogacy cases, Deputy Minister Tien said.

Under the new regulation, surrogacy is allowed when the woman who has found another woman to act as a surrogate mother has no uterus, has a deformed uterus that is unable to bear a fetus, or has had her uterus cut off.  

Surrogacy is also allowed when a woman suffers health problems that can endanger her life and the fetus if she gets pregnant, or when a woman has undergone repeated miscarriages or has repeatedly failed to get pregnant despite the support of reproductive assistance techniques.

Sources: http://tuoitrenews.vn/society/26814/vietnam-has-first-10-qualified-surrogacy-cases-under-revised-law

Altruistic surrogacy now legal in Vietnam, bound by numerous limits

The Ministry of Health has allowed three major hospitals in Hanoi, Hue and Ho Chi Minh City to carry out surrogacy services on a trial basis, starting this week.

Experts said the reason for the ministry to be reserved about launching the service until now is that the demand is still low and that the agency wants to keep a close watch on it.

Non-commercial surrogacy was legalized in Vietnam last June, after being banned for years.

Under the new law, surrogacy is allowed among legally married, childless couples only after doctors confirm the mother is unable to give birth even with technical support.

The health ministry reportedly will consider expanding the service to other hospitals when demand increases.

In the meantime, Dr. Le Quang Thanh, director of HCMC-based Tu Du Obstetrics Hospital, said that the legalization of surrogacy at his hospital makes almost no difference because in terms of techniques, the practice is basically in-vitro fertilization, or IVF.

Tu Du as well as Hue Central Hospital and the National Hospital of Obstetrics and Gynecology in Hanoi are already experienced when it comes to treating infertility with IVF methods, he said.

The only difference lies in paperwork, according to the doctor.

'Good solution'
Nguyen Huy Quang, chief of the health ministry’s legal department, said surrogacy is a good solution for incurably infertile couples.

It also shows humanity, as the rate of infertility in Vietnam is quite high – about 7.7 percent of married couples in reproductive ages, according to Quang.

Still banning surrogacy for commercial purposes, the new law stipulates that the arrangement must be voluntary for all parties involved and follow IVF regulations.

It states that the surrogate must be a sister or cousin within three generations of either the husband or wife, and have given birth successfully.

A woman is allowed to be a surrogate only once in her life and must secure her husband’s approval if she’s married.

The amended law also removes the limit on the age of women taking part in IVF process.

Previously, women older than 45 years old were not allowed to receive sperms, eggs and embryos for laboratory reproduction.

Medical costs and any childcare must be paid by the parents.

Sources: http://www.thanhniennews.com/health/altruistic-surrogacy-now-legal-in-vietnam-bound-by-numerous-limits-39867.html

A surrogacy conundrum that didn't need to be

A single man has become a father. Nothing wrong in this, you might suppose. Single women plan and deliberately create babies, or freeze their eggs, sometimes to avoid that annoying ticking biological clock. Other children become the child of a single parent, through tragedy or divorce. The fact this was a man makes this unusual. While we may all have opinions about whether being raised by one parent rather than two is optimal, we can probably all agree that this depends on many other factors, including the availability of other support that the (single) parent has.

The child in question was in fact carried by his own grandmother, who acted as a gestational surrogate for the embryo created – in an IVF clinic – using a donor egg and her son's sperm (reported in BioNews 793). So not only did this case cause ripples of alarm because a single man deliberately created a child using a surrogate, but also, for many (I watched numerous comments roll in on Twitter, for example), there's a gut 'yuk' feeling: 'a mother having her own son's baby?! Gross!' Some of the headlines didn't help - The Daily Mail went with, for example, 'Woman gives birth to her own son's IVF baby: Now he wins right to adopt child who is his brother' (1).

But that's not what this is. A woman carried her own son's baby, and that's different. The child is only that man's 'brother' because an outdated and questionable legal provision, designed to cope with entirely different situations, says he is. There is no hint of an incestuous relationship here (2). A single man (or a gay male couple) can't have a genetically-related child any other way than by using a surrogate. No-one really batted an eyelid when Elton John and long term partner David Furnish had their children using surrogacy. No-one even noticed that this year's Oscars host Neil Patrick Harris and his partner have children by surrogacy. Surrogacy for gay men – that's been done. And while it will sometimes be a difficult journey, there is no doubt that in this country at least we have accepted and enshrined into law the fact that two gay men can become parents this way – married, in a civil partnership, or otherwise.

But surrogacy for single men - that's new. Yet I don't really see why people would have a problem with it per se, other than to perhaps think 'I hope he's got a lot of support around him, as that's going to be tough', in the same way we would think for a single woman, or even a really young couple, just starting out. Kyle Casson, the man in question, is halfway through his twenties. That may cause questions about whether he could truly know by then that he wanted to do this - and do it alone - but that is, crucially, his choice to make.

There is no suggestion that Kyle pressurised his mother in any way into doing this for him. Another female family member had been lined up to carry the baby (would anyone care so much if it had been a cousin, an aunt or even a sister who did this?) but was unable to in the end for health reasons. It is not uncommon for female family members to act as surrogates, and there have been examples of mother-daughter surrogacy in the past. Anne-Marie Casson and her husband discussed it, thought they would like to help (and to become grandparents), and offered.

Not only that, but the fertilisation and implantation of the embryo was done using IVF, in a licensed clinic. The clinic has a legal obligation under the Human Fertilisation and Embryology (HFE) Act to consider the welfare of any child to be born following such procedures. Prior to the amendments to this legislation in 2008, the clinic would have had to have in mind the child's 'need for a father' as part of that assessment (not that this was a problem here, and the need for a mother was never specifically written into the law) – this is no longer the case, however.

When this arrangement took place, the clinic staff making the decision to treat or not treat would have had to think about the child's need for 'supportive parenting'. Essentially, this is a consideration of the putative parent's ability to cope, and of the support network - family and friends - they have around them. Notwithstanding questions about whether such an assessment ought to take place at all, given that fertile people aren't assessed in the same way before they have children, Kyle Casson's circumstances would have been thoroughly considered. The clinic went ahead with the treatment responsibly and presumably much counselling was received by all parties concerned.

But that was by no means the end of the legal story. As the HFE Act makes literally no provision for a single person to become a parent of a child born via surrogacy via a parental order (a court order that transfers legal parenthood post-birth, but only when certain conditions are met – coupledom being one of them), Kyle had to apply to adopt his own son. Even though Anne-Marie Casson and her husband saw themselves as grandparents, they were in fact the indisputable parents of the baby in law.

And again the story doesn't stop there. While it is entirely legally possible for a single person to adopt a child, difficulties arise when that child was not yet born when the adoption was considered. This was complicated by the fact the child was in fact born through surrogacy, as the parenthood provisions of the HFE Act 2008 rendered Kyle a non-parent and the surrogacy itself when seen in that light looked like an arranged adoption, which is a criminal offence for all parties to the arrangement. The only way around this was if Kyle was a 'relative' of the child – and as the brother this meant he was able to adopt (this is also why he couldn't have asked a female friend to be his surrogate). Having worked around all this, Mrs Justice Theis DBE, in making the adoption order, was satisfied (as she had to be) that the child's 'lifelong welfare needs' were met by the order being granted (3).

This case highlights the fact that the law regarding surrogacy is inadequate and outdated. Though the legislation was rewritten in 2008, the public consultations that led to the reforms barely asked about surrogacy (4). In the small section dedicated to it, respondents were asked whether the right to obtain a parental order should be extended from married couples to those in civil partnerships or enduring relationships, but it was always unlikely that this change would not have been made, given changes to adoption law and the move to legislate for civil partnerships in the first place. Claims of discrimination would have been rife. But seemingly no-one gave a thought to those who wanted (or ended up having) to go it alone. It is unclear why this barrier is in place.

I have argued elsewhere that legal parenthood following surrogacy ought to be automatically vested with the intended parents. If this was the case, Anne-Marie Casson would not have been the legal mother of this child, and her husband would not have been the legal father. Kyle would have been the father (and also therefore not the brother). There would have been no legal mother - but given that having a father waiting is now something we don't have to specifically consider when offering treatment, why should it be different the other way around? Perhaps, also, a better law would mean that fewer people would need to look to family members to be surrogates for them - or need to go abroad for surrogacy, where different complications can arise (5).

If supportive parenting is what's needed, then the Cassons provide a good example of what exactly this can mean. They did everything right, from seeking legal advice before embarking on the arrangement, to having joint and individual counselling sessions, discussing the circumstances openly with family and friends and fully engaging with their social worker. Presumably, when the time comes, this child - now seven months old and very much wanted and loved by his father and grandparents - will be told all about it. It's unfortunate that the birth records of this child will be facilitating a lie - that he was adopted by his 'brother' - but at least the situation is resolved.

Sources: http://www.bionews.org.uk/page_507198.asp

Britain's most prolific surrogate mum 'pregnant' with 16th and 17th babies

Britain's most prolific surrogate mum is hoping to have another baby - after already giving birth to 15 babies.

Carole Horlock, 48, revealed the news to the Mail that she has been implanted with two embryos from a couple who are desperate to be parents.

The embryos were transferred to her womb at the weekend – just a few hours after Carole met the parents-to-be for the first time.

However, it will take up to two weeks before doctors know if either of the embryos has successfully embedded.

Carole has two daughters of her own, Steffanie, 24, and Megan, 21, and has given birth to 13 other children as a surrogate mother – including a set of twins and a set of triplets.

She last gave birth in April 2013 – to a boy weighing 9lb 14oz.

In an exclusive interview with the paper, she said: "At the time I said he was going to be my last, but having babies is addictive.

"The thought I could be pregnant again is incredibly exciting – it's the beginning of a journey with the couple which culminates in a magical moment when I give birth."

Carole, who lives in Colchester, Essex, with her partner of 16 years, Paul, approached the latest couple on an internet surrogacy forum last Monday and met them on Friday night, before having the IVF treatment on Saturday morning.

Carole said: "I'm just a womb they've hired to help them achieve their dream of being parents. As far as I'm concerned it's their baby not mine.

"I know in my heart I've made the right decision to approach a mum who is desperate to have a baby of her own, and I'm confident that they'll be good parents."

Carole said: "Some people may think that what I'm doing is wrong, as I'd only met the couple in the flesh just 12 hours before having the IVF, but I don't believe it is at all.

"Ideally, I would have spent more time getting to know them. There wouldn't normally be such a rush, but I'd been having this treatment for another couple who pulled out of the surrogacy with no real reason, which has left me devastated.

"I didn't want to lose out on the chance to have another surrogate baby for a couple, as I'm now 48 years old. And it seemed such a wasted opportunity when I could use my womb again to help others."

She added: "I love being pregnant, although I hope it is just one this time. With two embryos there is a chance it could be twins. And I really don't want to contemplate triplets or quads at my age – I've done triplets once and that was enough!"
It's almost 20 years since Carole became pregnant with her first child for another couple after reading a newspaper article about surrogacy.

She went on to have twins in February 1997, triplets in March 2008 and other babies in March 1998, July 1999, October 2000, January 2002, April 2003, June 2004 and April 2013. For each pregnancy, she is paid expenses of between £7,000 and £15,000.

Sources: http://www.parentdish.co.uk/2015/03/16/britains-most-prolific-surrogate-mum-pregnant-with-16th-and-17th-babies-carole-horlock/

Twins born to surrogacy in Ukraine

A High Court Judge has granted parental orders to a couple who commissioned the birth of twins in Ukraine.

In RS v T, the couple concerned had been married for 38 years and were both in their 60s. More than 20 years previously the woman had undergone IVF treatment in an attempt to have a child but this was unsuccessful and the couple decided to explore surrogacy as an alternative.

But it was not until 2012 that they decided to proceed with surrogacy and entered an arrangement with a commercial clinic in Ukraine, paying a fee of EUR 26,000 (£18,520) plus a supplement of EUR 5000 (£3,562)when the surrogate mother became pregnant with twins.

The current period of civil unrest in Ukraine began around the time the twins were born and the couple were therefore stranded in the country for several months.

While still in Ukraine, the couple asked the surrogate mother to signdeclarations stating that she agreed to the children being brought to the UK and to giving up her parental rights.

The commissioning couple have now returned to the UK with the twins. In February they applied for the parental order, transferring to them the status of parents to the twins. Under English law, the birth mother of surrogate children is their legal mother unless and until this status is transferred by the courts.

However, the couple ran into difficulties demonstrating the amount of money which had been paid to the surrogate mother, and were also unable to contact her in order to serve her with notice of the proceedings.

In the Family Court sitting at Canterbury, Mrs Justice Theis explained:
“The applicants invite the court to dispense with the need for the respondent to be served, as they submit they have taken reasonable steps to try and locate her. The evidence demonstrates that the only other method left to seek to contact her would be by way of notification in the media to try and locate where she is.”

The Judge said the documents signed by the surrogate mother while the couple were still in Ukraine were not sufficiently detailed to demonstrate that the birth mother had fully consented under the relevant legislation. On the other hand, she also believed that the couple had taken all reasonable steps to find the mother and the Judge decided that it would not be sensible for the couple to purse the possibility of trying to contact the mother through the media given the “very sensitive subject” and the unrest in the region.

Mrs Justice Theis authorised the payments made by the couple, saying the couple had “acted in good faith” and not sought to conceal the sums paid. Payments made to foreign clinics and surrogate mothers must be authorised by the family courts when granting parental orders because commercial surrogacy is illegal in the UK.

Noting that some of the difficulties encountered by the couple could have been avoided if they had taken specialist legal advice, she turned to the question of the couple’s age. They had no health concerns and a Cafcass officer had approved the granting of a parental order after interviewing them. However, the officer did stress the importance of the couple making arrangements for the children in the event that they became unable to care for them.

The Judge concluded that the twins’ welfare required “the position with their current carers to be secured in a way that provides lifelong security.”

Sources: http://www.marilynstowe.co.uk/2015/03/16/twins-born-to-surrogacy-in-ukraine/

Mom’s the word

WOMEN are the key decision maker for almost all purchases in a home. And when it comes to selling products to children, it is the mother who has to be convinced first. No wonder that Dentsu India Network has launched a full-fledged division to understand what makes Indian women, and especially mothers,  trust a particular brand while saying ‘no’ to others.

Launched just two days before International Women’s Day this year, Dentsu Mama Lab is an ode to all the mothers in the country, says Rohit Ohri, executive chairman, Dentsu India and CEO Dentsu APAC. The newly launched division of the group aims at bringing brands and mothers closer through various solutions. “It all began three years back with the launch of Mama Lab in Tokyo. While the lab is still under operation in Tokyo, with the launch in India, the idea is to turn it into a solutions division than just being a planning or research room. We want to take insights from the lab to brands and help them to target moms,” added Ohri.

This is not the first time that the Japan based agency has launched a division targetted at a special section of consumers, it also runs Dentsu Diversity Lab apart from Dentsu Innovation Lab in Japan. In fact, the Japanese advertising giant spends $35 million annually on funding innovative ideas in its various labs.

For Swati Bhattacharya, who has been roped in as principal partner, Mama Lab, Creative Dentsu, the new division’s mojo comes from knowing and understanding the Indian mother. “We will work towards solving brands’ problems with the knowledge of the users. For instance, we may create an app on behalf of a diaper brand for the needs of mothers when they are flying,” she added.

For both Ohri and Bhattacharyya, the new division will not function like a regular agency that participates in a pitch process to win new businesses. Rather the focus will be to take insights derived out of studies to brands and help them create solutions targetted at Indian mothers.

“For instance, one of the ways to increase in-home consumption of beverages is by talking to the mothers as no 18-year-old is responsible for buying products for their homes,” added Ohri.

Moreover, with the new division the advertising network is looking at debunking myths surrounding Indian mothers. “A study recently conducted by us shows that the Indian mother is not the ‘mother India’ she is portrayed on screen most of the time, rather she is a woman with a vision and aim and wants everyone to recognise her abilities. Through our various we want to put forward this idea,” said Narayan Devanathan, EVP and national planning director, Dentsu.

As the first step, Bhattacharya and her team has created their very first campaign celebrating different facets of motherhood. Launched on International Women’s Day, the campaign told the story of a surrogate mother, who sold her baby in order to raise her daughter.

Sources: http://www.financialexpress.com/article/industry/companies/moms-the-word/54334/

LEGENDARY GAY DESIGNERS OPPOSE GAY MARRIAGE, GAY PARENTING, SURROGACY

Domenico Dolce and Stefano Gabbana, founders of the eponymous fashion house, have come out strongly against gay marriage, the notion of gay families, and the use of surrogacy to procreate.

The billionaire pair, who used to be romantically linked, gave an interview with the Italian magazine Panorama, in which they said, “The only family is the traditional one. No chemical offspring and rented uterus. Life has a natural flow; there are things that cannot be changed.”

They also said, “Procreation must be an act of love.”

“I call children of chemistry, synthetic children. Uteri for rent, semen chosen from a catalogue,” Dolce stated.

Gabanna said, “The family is not a fad. In it there is a supernatural sense of belonging.”

The pair have long been outspoken about gay marriage. In 2013, when the London Telegraph asked them if they had ever considered getting married, they answered, “What? Never!” Dolce said, “I’m a practicing Catholic.”

Gabbana told the Daily Mail in 2006, “I am opposed to the idea of a child growing up with two gay parents.”

LGBTNews in Italy is already calling for a boycott of Dolce and Gabbana.

It is not unusual for gay men in Europe to oppose gay marriage. In fact, a group of gay men in France, calling themselves Les Hommen, have been an ongoing feature of traditional marriage protests in France. Les Hommen invaded the French Open, stripped to the waist, with pro-marriage slogans written on their chests. Gay Star News suggested it was “the most homoerotic anti-gay protest ever.”

Sources: http://www.breitbart.com/big-government/2015/03/14/legendary-gay-designers-oppose-gay-marriage-gay-parenting-surrogacy/

Doncaster mum gives birth to gay son’s baby

Andrew McCaren/Ross Parry Picture shows Kyle Casson from Skellow in Doncaster. Anne Marrie Casson has become a surogate for her gay sone Kyle the little boy miles was born last year at full term and is now eight months old. Thje process at a private IVF clinic cost between $12000 & $14000.

A Doncaster mum has given birth to her gay son’s baby - after he told her he was desperate to become a father.

Kyle Casson, 27, picked his mum Anne-Marie, 46, to become a surrogate and carry his son Miles, now eight months old, in what is thought to be the first case of its kind in the UK.

Mrs Casson, who lives in Intake with her husband Alan became pregnant with a donor egg fertilised by the sperm of her son.

He is understood to be the first single man to have a child through surrogacy in Britain and the first to use his own mother as a surrogate.

The arrangement emerged after a High Court judge ruled that Mr Casson can now adopt the baby and become his legal father - even though he is also the tot’s brother in the eyes of the law.

Mrs Casson, of Lakeen Road, told a national newspaper she felt compelled to help her son, a supermarket worker from Skellow, have a baby and said: “When he first came to me, I thought ‘I could do it.’ Some people when they did find out said ‘urgh’ but they don’t understand.

“He is not biologically tied to me, other than he’s my grandson. I love being a parent and for Kyle to experience that, I would do that for him.”

Mrs Casson stepped in after another female relative who had initially been lined up to be a surrogate mum found she was unable to do it.

Because he is single, Mr Casson was turned away by surrogacy clinics across the country. While it is not illegal for single parents to enter into a surrogacy arrangement, the law prevents them from applying for an order that they need to legally raise their child in the UK.

Rules stipulate that a surrogate mother must hand a child over to two parents, usually a couple in “an enduring family relationship.”

But judge Mrs Justice Theis ruled last week that the adoption would not break the law because the baby and its father are legally related as brothers.

The process at a private IVF clinic cost between £12,000 and £14,000 and Mrs Casson gave birth to Miles last July by caeserean section.

Speaking publicly for the first time, Mr Casson said: “I understand that not everyone will agree with it, but they can have their opinions. I have a son and I am very happy. As long as people can provide a home and they have the support, I don’t see why anyone should be denied the right to be a parent. “Regardless of sexuality, gender, as long as you can provide for the child, I don’t see what the problem is.”

He added that he will explain his son’s unusual upbringing when he is older and added: “I am never going to lie to him. We will tell him at appropriate stages in his life, you have to be truthful. There is no other way.”

Mrs Casson’s husband Alan - Kyle’s stepdad - is the legal father - as he consented to the pregnancy and both are named on Miles’s birth certificate.

Kyle has younger twin brothers and was four when his mum separated from his biological dad. She went onto marry Mr Casson who adopted the boys and has raised them as his own.

He added that when Miles was born he cried and added: “I could not believe it. I did not now what he would look like because you do not know the donor, but people say he looks like me.”

He will return to work next month with Mrs Casson taking up childcare duties.

Sources: http://www.southyorkshiretimes.co.uk/news/local/doncaster-mum-gives-birth-to-gay-son-s-baby-1-7155580

Woman Gets Addicted To Giving Birth, Becomes Surrogate Till Her ‘Womb Falls Out’

Tara Sawyer claims that she has gotten addicted to being pregnant. She says that she enjoys giving birth so much that she is now offering her services as a surrogate for free just because she wants a baby in her belly so badly.

She already has been pregnant over 7 times, 4 of which were her own children and the rest were others. She says that she loves pregnancy so much that she is willing to get pregnant as many times as she could until her "womb falls out."

If she is willing to get pregnant so many times, then we guess that she might actually be able to break the Duggar family record of 19 kids.

Tara says that she does not do this for the children. In fact, she says that she does not feel any emotions while giving away the child. Her first surrogate child two years ago was actually her own biological daughter and she said that she had no problems handing her over to her adoptive family.

She says that she is always in a huge rush because she feels her best when she is pregnant. She even claims that being pregnant makes her body much better in shape.

According to Elite Daily, Tara says that "It is an amazing feeling to hand over a child to someone who desperately wants it, and I feel at my best whilst pregnant."

While some might think that this type of addiction is still better than other types of addictions such as drug abuse, food, etc. But we still think that it is creepy that she is even refusing the 15,000 British pounds per pregnancy that she is legally obliged to as a surrogate mom.

But, at the end of the day, as long as there are no strings and no harm done to the baby during the pregnancy, for some people, this might be a great thing. There is no harm in giving back to the community. 

Tara has complete support of her family including her husband Matt. He says that they both have talked about it and Tara being a surrogate mother brings them even closer as a couple.

Sources: http://www.sciencetimes.com/articles/4009/20150313/woman-gets-addicted-to-giving-birth-becomes-surrogate-till-her-womb-falls-out.htm

More infertile Chinese couples seeking surrogacy in US

An illustration of surrogate motherhood. (Illustration/CFP)

With surrogacy banned in China, more and more infertile and same sex couples in China are considering having children through surrogates in the United States, the China Business News reported.

"Linda" was 36 when she first went to America in 2009 to consult a surrogacy agency in California. She finally realized her dream of becoming a mother at 40, and her son is now two years old.

Based on her successful experience, Linda established a consulting firm to provide assistance to couples having the same problem as she did.

Linda told the China Business News that surrogacy consulting service providers in China do not advertise their business in a big way. They usually hold small-sized promotional events to solicit customers.

These companies are responsible for communicating with medical institutions, insurers, surrogacy brokers, sperm banks and egg banks in the United States. If needed, they can also assign people to accompany their customers to America to help them resolve various problems.

"We usually arrange everything for customers. Every customer is usually dealt with for one to two years and is charged between 70,000-90,000 Chinese yuan (US$11,200-$14,400)," she said.

In the US, commercial surrogacy is legal in Oregon and California but is banned in Washington DC, New York, New Jersey, Michigan and Washington.

Medical institutions in the United States usually charge US$30,000-$50,000 for their services, which involves creating an embryo using the sperm and egg of the intended parents before transferring it to the ovary of the surrogate mother.

If the female half of the couple cannot produce eggs, or in the case of same sex couples, an extra 50,000-100,000 yuan (US$8,000-$16,000) is required to buy eggs from an egg bank.

Surrogacy brokers are responsible for selecting surrogate mothers for the intended parents. The brokers are also responsible for managing and communicating with the surrogate mothers after they become pregnant.

Surrogacy brokers and surrogate mothers are each paid about US$30,000 in each case.

Sources: http://www.wantchinatimes.com/news-subclass-cnt.aspx?id=20150313000117&cid=1103

Friendship more than survives surrogacy ordeal: Porter

When Leslie Solomonian offered to carry a fetus for her friend Sofia Grebius, neither woman knew how hard it would be.

Moments before her first baby was born, Sofia Grebius remembers the midwife asking two questions: “Are you ready?” and “Is your friendship going to survive this?”

The friendship in question was with Leslie Solomonian, a woman Sofia has considered kindred for two decades.

Leslie was giving birth to her baby.

“I was so surprised by that second question,” says Sofia, looking over at Leslie with tears in her eyes. “I never felt that.”

Friendships are built through shared experiences: canoe trips, picnics, soccer games, work projects. Sofia and Leslie’s “project” was on a higher stratosphere. It was to make a baby.

Sofia, a 37-year-old Swedish entrepreneur, wanted to be a mother desperately, but couldn’t deliver her own child. She lost her uterus, though not her ovaries, to cervical cancer six years ago.

Leslie already had two children. Her pregnancies had been easy, enjoyable even. Four winters ago, while driving to an inn in the Kawarthas for a girls’ getaway, she offered to be Sofia’s surrogate.

“You were quiet after that,” says Leslie, a naturopathic doctor and professor. “It took you a long time to think about it.”

The two are unlikely friends. They grew up on different sides of the globe: Sofia in Sweden and Laos; Leslie in Kitchener and later Toronto.

They met 20 years ago, when they were both nervous 17-year-old students arriving in Japan for a yearlong student exchange. Neither spoke Japanese. They both felt painfully obtrusive, acutely alone and desperately homesick. (This was before the invention of email.)

That year, they became each other’s family.

When Leslie competed in a triathlon, “Sofia rode her bike beside me while I ran, cheering me on and pouring water over my head.” She describes Sofia as loving and loyal.

For Sofia, Leslie’s trademark qualities were strength and a full-mouthed relish of life.

After that year, they returned to their own continents, keeping in touch only sporadically.

But, their spirits were glued.

Leslie wept when Sofia broke the new about her cancer over Skype. They talked too about her longing to have a baby and the walls she was slamming into.

Local adoption is rare in Sweden. Sofia put her name on international adoption lists, but her cancer history disqualified her in many cases. As for surrogacy, it is not permitted in Sweden.

In Canada, only altruistic surrogacy is legal under the Assisted Human Reproduction Act.

You can’t pay a woman to carry your baby for you. It has to be a gift.

It was the biggest gift Leslie has ever offered anyone, she admits. But, at first, she didn’t think it was a big deal. She was simply loaning out her uterus. She figured her life would otherwise continue as normal.

When Sofia came to Toronto in the fall of 2013 for the first attempted embryo transfer, Leslie insisted that she and her boyfriend, Peter Blom — the baby’s intended father — stay in her small apartment. She threw them a party.

“I assumed it would work the first time and it would be easy,” says Leslie.

Sofia overflowed with anxiety and anticipation. She’d been working up to this moment for years. For her, it was a titanic deal. She remembers the walk to the fertility clinic like this: “I was exploding inside. I wanted to cry. I was concentrating on breathing.”

The procedure didn’t work the first time. Or the second or third. Every attempt, Leslie had to be induced into menopause, then jacked full of estrogen and progesterone so her uterus was ripe. She had hot flashes, and violent emotional swings.

For Sofia, the “project” meant repeated cross-Atlantic trips. She had to jab her belly with needles to jolt her ovaries into high production. The egg extraction operations triggered frightening flashbacks to her cancer surgeries.

The “project” has unfolded over four years. During that time, Leslie’s marriage ended and Sofia and her former boyfriend broke up. She started dating Peter a few months before the first scheduled appointment at the fertility clinic. Up till then, she was going to use donated sperm.

The pressure on Peter was extreme. Did he want to be a father? Once he decided yes, the pressure transferred to his just-forming relationship with Leslie. It’s hard to become soul mates on command.

“Someone I didn’t know was doing this insanely emotional, intimate thing for us,” Peter says.

Finally, last June, the embryo embedded in Leslie’s uterine wall successfully. It was their fourth and final try.

Sofia and Peter did not come to the clinic that day, though they were in Toronto. Leslie had asked for some privacy.

Having a baby together is hard on marriages. It’s also hard on friendships, it turns out.
“Knowing how big this was for you emotionally and feeling the weight of that — it was too much to carry,” Leslie says in tears.

It wasn’t just her uterus but her identity she felt she’d loaned to the “project.” Few people notice a pregnant belly without commenting on it. Leslie was forever explaining herself. She felt more pregnant than she had with her own children, precisely because she wasn’t carrying her own child.

“I needed boundaries to live my regular life. I have relationships to foster, kids to look after, my job. I needed space.”

The weight of that distance felt leaden to Sofia. She worried more about her friend than she did about her growing baby.

“My friend was not feeling well. I didn’t know how to help,” she says.

Early the morning of March 1, Leslie’s water broke. She let Sofia know and texted her that afternoon when she was enroute to the Toronto Birth Centre in Regent Park.

Forty minutes after they all arrived, Leslie gave birth to a little boy. He was heaved up onto her bare chest until his umbilical cord was cut, and then he was passed into the trembling arms of his mother.

Sofia calls that experience “pure magic.”

“I felt lighter,” says Leslie.

So, what was their answer to the midwife: Will friendship survive this?

Both respond with an emphatic “Yes.”

All the things Leslie loved about her friend — compassion and loyalty — came into sharp focus again.

“We’ve just gotten to know each other deeper,” says Sofia.

She and Peter have named their son Astor Ontario Q Axel Joe Blom Grebius.

“We were worried those were too many names. But then, why not just give him them all?” says Sofia. “There were so many people involved in him being here.”

Sources:http://www.thestar.com/news/world/2015/03/13/friendship-more-than-survives-surrogacy-ordeal-porter.html

SI is closed on 14th March, 2015

SI will not be working tomorrow (i.e.14th March, 2015) hence there could be delay in reply to the emails.
However, you may always give us a call in an emergency situation.

Sherri Shepherd, Lamar Sally Surrogacy Drama Continues in Court

Sherri Shepherd and Lamar Sally will soon find out who’ll be ruled the official mother of their baby boy born to a surrogate last August, reports Radar Online.

A Pennsylvania judge continued a custody hearing Wednesday to determine the baby’s legal mother (Shepherd, the surrogate or the egg donor).

Though Shepherd has yet to testify, ex husband Sally has revealed that the former host of “The View” does not wish to be considered the now 7-month-old’s mother. Sally claims Shepherd had changed her mind after the surrogate was heavily pregnant, and following the couple’s split in 2014, no longer wanted to be associated with the child.

While the surrogate, Jessica Bartholomew, is considered the child’s mother on his birth certificate, she is equally unenthused.

“I’m just frustrated that I’m the mother of the baby, but hopefully when we come back again all that will change,” she told People Magazine after leaving court on Wednesday.

Meanwhile Reproductive Possibilities, who Sally and Shepherd used to arrange the process in the first place, have been attending court as well, concerned that their reputable company will be tainted after the ordeal.

“Our office has done 200 of these [a year] and this is the first time we’ve had this happen,” attorney Melissa B. Brisman, representing the company, said. “It’s usually the intended parents who are afraid that the carrier may want to keep the baby.”

“It’s an unusual circumstance where you have someone who came into a relationship and then doesn’t want the baby,” she continued.

“It’s heartbreaking, actually, very heartbreaking,” Sally, who testified at the hearing on Wednesday, shared.

Sally currently has custody of the baby.

Sources: http://www.eurweb.com/2015/03/sherry-shepherd-lamar-sally-surrogacy-drama-continues-in-court/

Surrogacy helps many eke out their livelihood

Lakshmi, a 25-year-old from the city, is due to deliver in a week. Her husband runs a small business, which gets him around `500 a day. They have two children and she says that to secure their future and provide them education, she chose surrogacy.

“My family and in-laws know about it and they are very supportive. My husband and kids visit me regularly at the centre,” said Ms Lakshmi, who is elated that she will soon rejoin her family.

Farheen, a single mother from the city took to surrogacy after her husband died. Though initially reluctant, she took up surrogacy due to her financial problems. She gave birth to a boy on Monday and the baby has already been given to his parents.

When asked if she would become a surrogate mother once again, Ms Farheen said, “If I get a chance, I will. This not only gives me financial support, but also makes me happy as I am helping someone who can’t have kids.”

Like Lakshmi and Farheen, most women who choose surrogacy are those who didn’t have a chance to complete their schooling and see this as a way out of their financial problems.

Though fertility clinics quote different figures, a surrogate mother earns   `2-3 lakh for renting out her womb. As per data collated from major fertility clinics across Hyderabad, currently, there are at least 100 pregnant surrogates in the city. Another 150 are willing to be surrogates.

A positive trend that doctors note is that, surrogate mothers and couples opting for commercial surrogacy are shedding the stigma attached to it.

“Currently, our centre has 80 carrying surrogates. The numbers have improved over the last few years. Reasons for this can be that availability of surrogates has improved and also that  awareness about the procedure has increased. The stigma has definitely come down,” said M. Divakar Reddy, managing director of Dr Padmaja Fertility Centre.

A couple from Kolkata opted for Hyderabad because of “affordability and higher success rates”. For a couple opting for surrogacy, it might cost any where between `5 and `10 lakh, depending on the clinic and availability of surrogates.

Activists call surrogacy exploitation of women

While the number of couples opting for commercial surrogacy and women willing to be surrogates on the rise, activists from the city say that surrogacy is an exploitative procedure and that there are only guidelines and no laws in place yet to protect their rights.

A 2012 study on commercial surrogacy taken up by the Delhi-based Sama, a resource group for women and health, stated that commercial surrogacy was a $400 million industry in India. Khalida Parveen, a women’s rights activist and member of the Welfare Party of India, said that she will not encourage women to go for surrogacy due to religious reasons and also because of the chances of exploitation. “Even if a woman is paid, the concept is exploitative by its very nature and is against motherhood,” said Ms Parveen.

Dr Samit Sekhar, executive director at Hyd-erabad’s Kiran Infertility Centre, however, brushed aside the fears. “There are very strict guidelines put down by the Indian Council of Medical Research. If these are flouted the clinic will be barred from providing services.”

Sources: http://www.deccanchronicle.com/150313/nation-current-affairs/article/surrogacy-helps-many-eke-out-their-livelihood

B v C (Surrogacy: Adoption) [2015] EWFC 17

Surrogacy – Adoption – Child born via surrogacy arrangement with man’s mother – HFEA 2008, s 54 – Whether an adoption order should be made in the man’s favour

An adoption order was made in respect of a 7-month-old child who was born by way of a surrogacy arrangement between the man and his mother.

The 7-month-old child was born as a surrogacy arrangement whereby the single man’s mother agreed to be the gestational carrier for child conceived using the man’s sperm and a donor egg. The mother’s husband fully supported the agreement.

Implantation of the embryos only took place after the parties had counselling and all treatment was undertaken by a fertility clinic licensed by the HFEA.

The legal parents of the child were the mother and her husband. Pursuant to s 54 of the HFEA 2008 a parental order could not be granted in favour of the man because he was not in an enduring family relationship, marriage or civil partnership. He was, however, able to apply for an adoption order subject to the provisions of s 92 of the Adoption and Children Act 2002 by virtue of s 51(1) of the Act.

The man had already been granted leave under s 42(6) of the ACA 2002 for permission to apply for an adoption order before the child had lived with him for 3 years.

Detailed reports had been prepared for the hearing and supported the adoption order being made. The child had reportedly formed a secure attachment with the man who understood the need to explain how the child was born to him at an appropriate stage of his development.

It was clear that the family had thought carefully about the arrangement and sought appropriate advice. The strength of the familial relationships and the consequent support they would provide in the future would ensure that the child’s lifelong welfare needs were met. An adoption order was granted.

Sources: http://www.familylaw.co.uk/news_and_comment/b-v-c-surrogacy-adoption-2015-ewfc-17#.VQE4KXyUfOw

Amidst Its Highest-Ever Success Rates, CT Fertility Adds Next Generation DNA Sequencing as a Standard Feature of Its Unlimited IVF and Egg Donation Package

Anchored by cutting-edge technology and highly experienced embryologists, CT Fertility is now offering risk-free, deeply discounted same-day Pre-Implantation Genetic Screening (PGS) as part of its flat-fee unlimited IVF package.

CT Fertility has announced pregnancy rates for 2014 that place it among the most successful fertility centers in the United States. In 2014 84% of fresh IVF transfers involving egg donors and gestational carriers resulted in clinical pregnancies, an increase from 81% in 2013, and 78% in 2012 (see chart). This was also recently reported by the Society for Assisted Reproductive Technologies (SART) in their official IVF success rates data for 2013, which ranks CT Fertility as the 12th most successful fertility clinic in the USA. However since SART does not track cases which combine egg donation and surrogacy, CT Fertility's Top 12 ranking is shown for fresh embryo transfers with an egg donor.

The improved results are in part due to the growing use of Preimplantation Genetic Screening (PGS) which is being increasingly used to exclude chromosome abnormalities that lead to reduced implantation rates and/or increase the likelihood of miscarriages. To help more of their clients take advantage of this technology, and staying true to their desire to put a strict ceiling on potential costs, CT Fertility announced an enhanced unlimited IVF package that now includes as a standard feature the use of Next Generation DNA Sequencing, the most advanced PGS technique.

CT Fertility is one of the first among a small group of pioneering fertility centers to use Next Gen Sequencing to distinguish chromosomally normal embryos from nonviable and diseased ones. “Previously, decisions regarding which embryos to transfer were either based on crude visual progress assessment, or less evolved PGS techniques that presented undesirable trade-offs,” said Dr. Michael Doyle, the medical director of CT Fertility. “For example, those techniques were associated with some risk of harming the embryos, the risk of false-positive results that lead to discarding usable embryos, or the need to forgo fresh embryo transfers due to the long time required get the DNA test result,” he said. “Now we can consider those risks insignificant, especially when our highly experienced embryologists are performing the biopsy using technology that allows us to take a sample cell from the shell of the embryo, and not the fetal component. Furthermore, since CT Fertility is one of very few clinics performing same day Next Gen Sequencing and getting the results back within 24 hours, we never have to unnecessarily freeze all the embryos before the transfer.”

In addition to reducing the risks and compromises previously associated with PGS, CT Fertility reduced the associated costs by discounting the entire process by 20% (from $6250 to $5000) starting March 1, 2015. In addition, by adding Next Gen Sequencing as a standard feature to its popular unlimited surrogacy and egg donation package for only $3000 (which is less than 50% of the previous PGS fee), clients are paying less for enhanced services. Specifically, in the unlimited plan prospective parents pay a one-time, transparent fee that includes all associated costs for an unlimited number of IVF and embryo transfers (fresh or frozen) until they are successful. The $47,900 package is comprised of a $26,500 fee for all medical and FDA screenings and IVF treatments (as many as needed for a successful pregnancy) and now includes Next Gen PGS; $11,450 for the egg donor including her stipend, screening, clinical services, matching and associated fees; and $9,950 for all third party costs, including medications needed for both the donor and surrogate during the process and into the first trimester of the pregnancy. “We know that even with our highly promising pregnancy rates, there are still inherent uncertainties in the IVF and egg donation process, and we would like to give our clients full peace of mind and protection from those often hidden associated costs,” said Dr. Doyle. “The way we do this is by disclosing all costs up-front, with complete transparency, and not adding extra medical or IVF costs later on should additional treatments be required.”

Unlike most packages of this type offered by other clinics, CT Fertility imposes no restrictions on people who wish to only transfer one embryo at a time, so that parents who choose to be conservative because they wish to avoid twins are not penalized. Indeed CT Fertility has seen a growing number of intended parents who are opting to transfer only one embryo at a time, either on their first journey, or when they come back for a sibling. For these parents the combinations of PGS and an unlimited IVF plan can be especially beneficial since pregnancy rates for a single embryo transfer are lower compared to the rates when two embryos are transferred.

“These announcements are in step with our motto of ‘your family, your way’ – the commitment to give prospective parents who need IVF, donated eggs and/or surrogacy-related services more choice and control in creating the family that is right for them, at the lowest possible financial and emotional costs,” said Dr. Doyle.

Along the new enhanced unlimited IVF package, the clinic will continue to provide several of its unique program features. These include the wide availability of fully screened known egg donors, a guarantee for a minimum number of eggs across all applicable options, as well as automatic access to back-up eggs when needed (at no additional cost) —features which CT Fertility is uniquely positioned to offer due to its advanced egg-freezing capabilities. For prospective parents who do not opt for the unlimited plan, and are not successful on their first try, the clinic will continue with the policy of discounting subsequent frozen embryo transfers until they have a baby or run out of embryos.

Sources: http://www.prweb.com/releases/ct_fertility-surrogacy/rates-pgs-unlimited-plan/prweb12568623.htm