Showing posts with label surrogacy. Show all posts
Showing posts with label surrogacy. Show all posts

Saturday, February 24, 2024

Foreign surrogacy in Denmark is becoming less restrictive

 Above the Law has the story:

Denmark Passes New Pro-Surrogacy Regulations. The new rules in Denmark focus on two areas of surrogacy.  By ELLEN TRACHMAN  February 14, 2024

 "On February 5, 2024, the Danish government announced new surrogacy-supportive rules scheduled to come into effect on January 1, 2025. The rules address parentage for families formed by surrogacy — including commercial (compensated) surrogacy outside of Denmark — as well as for families formed by altruistic (noncompensated) surrogacy within Denmark.

...

"In Denmark, compensated surrogacy is illegal, and altruistic surrogacy has traditionally fallen into a legal gray area, pushing most hopeful parents who want to have a genetic connection to their child, but who are unable to carry a pregnancy themselves, to go abroad. The Danish government estimates that about 100 children are born to Danish parents each year by surrogacy outside of Denmark, while about five children each year are born within Denmark in altruistic surrogacy arrangements.

...

"Denmark has a history of denying parental rights to the intended parents of children born by surrogacy abroad. But on December 6, 2022, the European Court of Human Rights ruled against Denmark in K.K. and Others v. Denmark. In that case, a married heterosexual couple had twins with the assistance of a Ukrainian surrogate. Under Ukrainian law, both Danish intended parents were recognized as parents of the child, and the surrogate was not a parent of the child.

...

"The ECHR found that Denmark’s refusal to recognize the parent-child relationship between the mother and child was a human rights violation — not a violation of the mother’s human rights, but of the two children, to have a recognized legal relationship with their mother.


To its credit, Denmark is reacting to the ECHR’s definitive ruling. In the announcement by the Danish government last week, the government made it clear that the country’s new rules are intended to go beyond the minimum requirements of the ECHR to merely not violate the human rights of Danish children.  (The bare minimum requirement would be to just allow stepparent adoptions.) Instead, the Danish government’s new rules go farther to protect children and their parents.

...

"The new rules permit Danish family courts to quickly make a decision on parenthood in the case of a foreign surrogacy agreement, even permitting a court ruling to be made prior to the family’s return to Denmark. The rules also require that the court assess the best interest of the child, but with a presumption that it is, of course, in the child’s best interest to have a timely recognition of their parents.

"Moreover, the court decisions are permitted to be retroactive to the birth of the child, permitting parents to have access to parental leave work benefits, inheritance rights, and all other benefits of that legal relationship. And, in contrast to a stepparent adoption, the new rules will allow recognition of the parent-child relationship with the mother or nongenetic parent even if parents have separated, or if one parent died before they had a chance to apply for parenthood.

...

"In a stated attempt to address the risk of child trafficking, the rules require that at least one intended parent be genetically related to the child. Additionally, the surrogate is required to confirm in a notarized declaration after the birth that she wishes to transfer parenthood of the child to the intended parents."

Wednesday, January 10, 2024

Pope Francis calls for a ban on surrogacy

 The Catholic Church has long opposed in-vitro fertilization (IVF), one of the technological tools that allows surrogacy, on the grounds that IVF produces more embryos than are brought to term as babies, and so is comparable to abortion.*  But this week, during his annual "state of the world" foreign policy speech, Pope Francis made clear that he thinks surrogacy should additionally be banned because of the presence of "commercial contracts." 

Here's the story from the National Catholic Register:

Pope Francis Calls Surrogacy ‘Deplorable,’ Calls for Global Ban in Speech to Ambassadors

"Pope Francis called surrogacy “deplorable” and called for a global ban on the exploitative practice of “so-called surrogate motherhood” in a speech to all of the world’s ambassadors to the Vatican on Monday.

“The path to peace calls for respect for life, for every human life, starting with the life of the unborn child in the mother’s womb, which cannot be suppressed or turned into an object of trafficking,” Pope Francis said Jan. 8.

In this regard, I deem deplorable the practice of so-called surrogate motherhood, which represents a grave violation of the dignity of the woman and the child, based on the exploitation of situations of the mother’s material needs. A child is always a gift and never the basis of a commercial contract.”

"The Pope then called on the international community to prohibit the practice of surrogacy universally."

##########

The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops reiterates the main point in this quote from its spokesperson:

Statement of USCCB on Holy Father’s Remarks on Surrogacy, January 8, 2024

“As Pope Francis stated, with surrogacy, an unborn child is turned into ‘an object of trafficking’ because it exploits the birth mother’s material needs and makes the child the product of a commercial contract. This is why the Catholic Church teaches that the practice of surrogacy is not morally permissible. Instead, we should pray for, and work towards, a world that upholds the profound dignity of every person, at every stage and in every circumstance of life.”

##########

And here's the story in the NYT:

Francis Urges Ban on Surrogacy, Calling It ‘Despicable’  The pope said that an unborn child must not be “turned into an object of trafficking,” expanding his condemnation of a practice already illegal in Italy and some other European countries.  By Jason Horowitz

"Pope Francis on Monday called surrogate motherhood a “despicable” practice that should be universally banned for its “commercialization” of pregnancy, including the practice among wars, terrorism and other threats to peace and humanity in an annual speech to ambassadors.

...

"Surrogacy is already illegal in Italy and compensated surrogacy is also illegal or restricted in much of Europe. The United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Portugal and several other nations allow surrogacy under certain conditions. Paid surrogacy is legal in some European nations, including Ukraine, Russia and Belarus.

"Surrogate mothers in the United States and Canada are often hired by Europeans, including same-sex couples, seeking to have children..."

##########

Earlier:

Wednesday, April 5, 2023  Surrogacy under siege in Italy



#########
Update: here's the Pope's full speech (in English) from the Vatican Press Office:

Tuesday, June 6, 2023

Interview in the Brazil Journal

 I was interviewed for the Brazil Journal by Giuliano Guandalini. The interview was conducted in English, but appears in Portuguese. We discussed controversial markets generally, including kidney exchange, which is not legal yet in Brazil.

Troca de rins. Drogas. Barriga de aluguel. Este Nobel sugere liberar tudo  (Kidney exchange. Drugs. Surrogacy...)

 Here's a snippet that comes through pretty clearly in retranslation back into English by Google Translate:

"In the US and many other countries, his work and that of other researchers has contributed to improving the waiting list for kidney transplants. In Brazil, we continue with the traditional system, with a long wait for donors. Why is it so difficult to make reforms of this kind in public services based on the teachings of modern economics?  

"A transplant always depends on an organ donation, whether from a dead person or a living individual. It is natural that family members and society in general are concerned about how this will be done in an ethical and careful manner. 

"Brazil does a lot of transplants. So there is no restriction on the medical capacity side so that more transplants can be done. But when we look at total kidney transplants in relation to population size, the number is not that big. 

"Meanwhile, there are thousands of people on dialysis because transplants have not been enough. The issue, therefore, is to allow more donations to occur in life, and changing kidneys is a way for people to help save someone they love. 

"Brazil may be one of the next countries to carry out the exchange of kidneys. Some experimental surgeries have already been performed, with legal authorization. Researchers will be able to gain support to perform more operations of this type and then, perhaps, society will be able to convince itself of the importance of changing kidneys. 

"What are the obstacles that prevent the adoption of organ exchange? Are they ethical, moral, religious issues? 

"A little bit of all those things. There are those concerned that poor and vulnerable people may have their organs stolen. Evidently, there must be complete assurance that this will not happen. But of course the poor would also like to save the lives of loved ones by giving them a kidney. "

Friday, April 7, 2023

Surrogacy in Spain is hard to suppress

 In a widely reported story, a Spanish celebrity has become the surrogate mother of her grandchild, with the help of sperm from her deceased son, and an American surrogate.  This has raised controversy in Spain, where surrogacy is illegal.

Here's the Guardian on the story:

Spanish TV star says surrogate baby is actually her grandchild. Ana Obregón, 68, says her son, Aless Lequio García, expressed desire to have a child before death in 2020

"A heated debate in Spain triggered by a 68-year-old celebrity who was reported to have used a surrogate mother in Miami to have a baby took a twist on Wednesday when the woman announced in the socialite magazine ¡Hola! that the baby was actually the daughter of her son who died of cancer in 2020.

...

"Surrogate pregnancies are banned in Spain, although children from such pregnancies in other countries can be registered.

...

"Initial reports about the baby grabbed the attention of the Spanish media and the country’s political parties, sparking criticism from the leftist coalition government. Many leading politicians and outlets of Spanish media refer to surrogacy as “womb renting”.

"The equality minister, Irene Montero of the leftist United We Can coalition partner, said surrogate pregnancies were “a form of violence against women”. The coalition’s Socialist party said legislation should be tweaked to prevent Spaniards using surrogates in other countries.

...

"The main opposition conservative People’s party has said it is open to debating legalising such pregnancies if there is no payment involved."

********

Recent related post:

Wednesday, April 5, 2023

Wednesday, April 5, 2023

Surrogacy under siege in Italy

 Opposition to surrogacy in Italy has taken aim at the babies of same sex couples.

The NYT has the story:

Surrogacy Emerges as the Wedge Issue for Italy’s Hard Right. Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni has ordered municipalities to stop certifying foreign birth certificates for same-sex couples who used surrogacy, leaving some babies in a legal limbo.  By Jason Horowitz

"the government of Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni ordered municipalities to obey a court ruling made in December and stop certifying foreign birth certificates of children born to Italian same-sex couples through surrogacy, which is illegal in Italy.

"The decision has left Martino Libero and several other children suspended in a legal limbo, depriving them of automatic Italian citizenship and residency rights like access to the country’s free health care system and nursery school.

...

"Milan, a city that has long served as a cosmopolitan haven for same-sex couples in Italy, has for now complied with the Meloni government order and suspended issuing Italian birth certificates.

"Without official recognition, Libero Martino, 2 months old this month, will have to leave and re-enter the country every few months to remain legal. A court could eventually recognize one of the men as the biological father — they decline to say which one is the sperm donor — and then they could start a separate adoption process for the other.

...

"Ms. Meloni’s government has sought to shift the issue away from the status of the children to the practice of surrogacy, which, while legal in the United States and Canada, is illegal or restricted in much of Europe outside of Greece, Ukraine and a few other countries. In Italy, home of the Vatican, it is not only illegal, but it is also widely opposed, including among Catholic corners of the center-left opposition.

...

"Prominent members of Ms. Meloni’s Brothers of Italy party have called surrogacy a crime “even worse than pedophilia,” in which gay couples, one of whom is usually the biological father, seek to “pass off” children as their own and mistake “children for Smurfs,” saying gay couples can uniquely afford surrogacy, even though it is overwhelmingly used more by heterosexual couples.

"The party is floating a proposal, made by Ms. Meloni when she was a member of Parliament, to make Italians’ seeking of surrogate births abroad — what she had called “procreative tourism” — illegal and “punishable with three months to two years of prison and a fine of 600,000 to a million euros.”

...

"In an interview shortly before her election, as her young daughter ran around her in a Sardinia courtyard, Ms. Meloni said she opposed gay marriage, not because she was homophobic — “I’ve got many, many homosexual friends” — but because she saw it as a step to same-sex adoption, which she opposed, and which the Roman Catholic Church successfully lobbied to exclude from a civil unions law passed in 2016.

********

Earlier:

Monday, February 20, 2023

Monday, February 20, 2023

Will Italy criminalize foreign surrogacy?

 It's hard to ban something that people want and need and is legally available in other jurisdictions, but it looks like Italy might try it regarding surrogacy.  Here's a story from Britain's Sunday Times:

Italian families seeking surrogates abroad could face jail or €1 million fines by Tom Kington

"Italians travelling abroad to seek surrogate mothers to start families could face jail time and a million euro fine thanks to a new bill introduced by senators close to Giorgia Meloni, the Italian prime minister.

"The proposed law, which must be approved by the Italian parliament, describes surrogacy as “an execrable example of the commercialisation of the female body and the treatment of babies as merchandise”.

...

"An Italian law passed in 2004 banned surrogate pregnancies in Italy, forcing couples to travel to countries such as the United States and Canada to find surrogate mothers."

Thursday, January 12, 2023

Surrogacy around the world and across international boundaries

Here's a wide ranging survey of the literature on surrogacy practice around the world.

Brandão, Pedro, and Nicolás Garrido. "Commercial Surrogacy: An Overview." Revista Brasileira de Ginecologia e Obstetrícia/RBGO Gynecology and Obstetrics 44, no. 12 (2022): 1141-1158.

Abstract: "Objective Surrogacy is the process in which a woman carries and delivers a baby to other person or couple, known as intended parents. When carriers are paid for surrogacy, this is known as commercial surrogacy. The objective of the present work is to review the legal, ethical, social, and cultural aspects of commercial surrogacy, as well as the current panorama worldwide.

"Methods This is a review of the literature published in the 21st century on commercial surrogacy.

"Results A total of 248 articles were included as the core of the present review. The demand for surrogate treatments by women without uterus or with important uterine disorders, single men and same-sex male couples is constantly increasing worldwide. This reproductive treatment has important ethical dilemmas. In addition, legislation defers widely worldwide and is in constant change. Therefore, patients look more and more for treatments abroad, which can lead to important legal problems between countries with different laws. Commercial surrogacy is practiced in several countries, in most of which there is no specific legislation. Some countries have taken restrictive measures against this technique because of reports of exploitation of carriers.

"Conclusion Commercial surrogacy is a common practice, despite important ethical and legal dilemmas. As a consequence of diverse national legislations, patients frequently resort to international commercial surrogacy programs. As of today, there is no standard international legal context, and this practice remains largely unregulated."

Here's the beginning of the section on "transnational" surrogacy:

"The denial of surrogacy in most countries, for all or for some (such as single people or same-sex couples), its cost or the lack of available carriers led to an important transnational search for these (and other) reproductive treatments.[155] [156] This phenomena has been called reproductive, procreative or fertility tourism, transnational reproduction or cross border reproductive care.[157] [158] [159] [160] [161] [162] In European countries alone and concerning any kind of ART, in 2010, a total of 24,000 to 30,000 cycles of cross border fertility treatment within the continent were estimated each year, involving 11,000 to 14,000 patients.[163] Transnational surrogacy is one of the fastest-growing cross-border reproductive treatments.[164] Choosing where to perform the surrogacy treatment usually entails finding the right equilibrium between legal guarantees and costs.[165] Due to the variety of legislations, costs and availability of donors and carriers between countries, patients may search for other countries to do the entire process of surrogacy, or different phases of the surrogate treatment in more than one country.[158] As an example, a male couple may get their donated oocytes from South Africa, where there are many donors available, do the IVF, recruit the surrogate and embryo transfer in Georgia (Sakartvelo), due to attractive prices, and fly the gestational carrier to the USA to deliver the baby, where children may be registered by both parents.[166] [167]" 

Monday, November 21, 2022

Surrogacy guidelines: necessity, not convenience

 As surrogacy becomes increasingly well established in the U.S., it is regulated not only by state laws, but  also via voluntary standards put forward by trade organizations as conditions of membership.

One is  the SOCIETY FOR ETHICS IN EGG DONATION AND SURROGACY (SEEDS), which calls itself "a nonprofit organization founded by a group of egg donation and surrogacy agencies, whose purpose is to define and promote ethical behavior by all parties involved in third party reproduction." 

They have a set of guidelines published this year which member organizations are supposed to subscribe to.  One of those guidelines seems to say that surrogacy agencies should only work with intended parents who can't have children on their own. That is, they want to facilitate surrogacies that they regard as necessary rather than those that might be merely convenient.

SOCIETY FOR ETHICS IN EGG DONATION AND SURROGACY, STANDARDS of ETHICAL CONDUCT for SEEDS MEMBER AGENCIES

"24.Agency Screening of Intended Parents

"a. An Agency shall not provide service to Intended Parents unless they demonstrate a need for surrogacy associated with a disease, condition or status characterized by:

"i. the failure to establish a pregnancy or to carry a pregnancy to live birth after regular, unprotected sexual intercourse;

"ii. a person’s inability to reproduce either as a single individual or with their partner without medical intervention; or

"iii. a licensed physician’s or mental health professional’s findings based on a patient’s medical, psychological, sexual, and reproductive history, age, physical findings and/or diagnostic testing. 

*******

The legal blog Above the Law has a post about this:

Should 'Social Surrogacy' Be Permitted? by Ellen Trachman

It says in part:

"What does the law say? States like Louisiana and Illinois specifically require documented medical need of intended parents in a surrogacy arrangement to comply with the state surrogacy law. Louisiana requires that a doctor “who has medically treated the intended mother … submits a signed affidavit certifying that in utero embryo transfer with a gestational carrier is medically necessary to assist in reproduction.”

"Utah previously required “medical evidence … show[ing] that the intended mother is unable to bear a child or is unable to do so without unreasonable risk.” But that provision was struck down by the State Supreme Court after determining it was unconstitutional as applied to a same-sex male couple and could not be read a in gender-neutral way. (The SEEDS standard is, by contrast, gender neutral.)

"Other states with surrogacy-specific statutes — like California, Washington, Colorado, New Jersey, and New York — are silent on medical need and, therefore, implicitly permit social surrogacy arrangements. And then those states with no surrogacy law, much of the country, permit social surrogacy by default.

"The SEEDS standard, of course, only applies to member agencies and does not prevent nonmember agencies from supporting social surrogacy arrangements or for those arrangements to occur independent of agencies."

***********

Stephanie Wang and I anticipated to some extent that this could be an issue in our paper

Roth, Alvin E. and Stephanie W. Wang, “Popular Repugnance Contrasts with Legal Bans on Controversial Markets,” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS),  August 18, 2020 117 (33) 19792-19798.

We surveyed populations in the U.S. and several other countries on transactions that were legal in some of them and illegal in others. We presented vignettes, and asked if they should be legal.  Because we wanted to give surrogacy a good chance of being perceived as repugnant, we made clear in the surrogacy vignette that there was no medical necessity, it was sought for convenience:

"James and Erica are a married couple in [home country]. They want to have a child, but Erica does not want to become pregnant due to the demands of her career as a model. Maria is a married mother in the Philippines. Maria’s husband is out of work, and Maria has decided to become a surrogate mother to earn additional income. James and Erica hire Maria to carry and give birth to a child from James and Erica’s sperm and egg. James and Erica pay Maria a year’s average income in the Philippines, and everyone signs a contract making it clear that James and Erica are the child’s biological parents and will have custody after the child is born."

You can see in the paper (or in this 2020 blog post) that (even) under these circumstances, clear majorities favored making this kind of voluntary surrogacy legal, not only in the U.S. and Philippines where surrogacy is legal, but also in Spain and Germany where surrogacy is illegal.

Friday, October 28, 2022

Surrogacy during wartime in Ukraine

 Surrogacy goes on amidst the war in Ukraine. The NYT has the story:

How Ukraine’s Surrogate Mothers Have Survived the War. When Russia invaded, Ukraine’s once-booming surrogacy industry seemed at risk of collapsing. But surrogate mothers and agencies have managed to continue deliveries, and clients are arriving again to pick up their children. By Maria Varenikova and Andrew E. Kramer

"Before Russia invaded in February, Ukraine was a major provider of surrogacy, one of the few countries that allows it for foreign clients. After a pause in the spring, surrogacy agencies are resuming their work, reviving an industry that many childless people rely on but that critics have called exploitative and that, in peacetime, was already ethically and logistically complex.

...

"Agencies are also adapting to the war. Besides helping surrogate mothers and their families relocate to safer cities, some have had to come up with ways to care for children as their biological parents struggled to overcome wartime and pandemic hurdles to reach Ukraine. Svitlana Burkovska, the owner of one small agency, Ferta, took infants into her own home for months.

...

"“We did not lose a single one,” said Ihor Pechenoha, the medical director at BioTexCom, Ukraine’s largest surrogacy agency and clinic. “We managed to bring all our surrogate mothers out from under occupation and shelling.”

...

"In the first month of the war, 19 babies born to surrogate mothers for one agency were marooned in a basement nursery in Kyiv. For weeks and months, it was difficult or impossible for biological parents to reach their children in Ukraine, but by August, all of the babies had gone home.

"The war has not diminished the appeal of surrogacy for couples desperate to have children, said Albert Tochylovsky, the director of BioTexCom.

...

"Before the war, the business thrived in Ukraine, where surrogate mothers typically earn about $20,000 per child they deliver. The war has made financial security even more urgent.

One 30-year-old surrogate mother, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because she had evacuated from Melitopol in Russia-occupied southern Ukraine and feared she could be targeted for reprisal, said she credited the job with getting her family out. “With the help of surrogacy,” she said, “I saved my family.”


"Owing to the nine-month lead time, agencies cannot make snap decisions about continuing or halting the business after developments like last week’s flurry of missile strikes, and pregnant mothers cannot be moved to jurisdictions outside Ukraine that do not recognize custody for biological parents in surrogate births.

Thursday, October 6, 2022

Gay couples, surrogacy, IVF and health insurance

 The Guardian has a story about the obstacles consulting a married gay couple in New York. They have an ongoing lawsuit regarding discrimination in health insurance for IVF. (Much of the article is also about the debate over whether surrogacy is ethical or exploitative):

‘We are expected to be OK with not having children’: how gay parenthood through surrogacy became a battleground  by Jenny Kleeman

"That’s when they first became aware of the eye-watering cost of biological parenthood for gay men. Maggipinto reels off the price list in a way that only someone who has pored over every item could. There’s compensation for the egg donor: no less than $8,000 (£6,600). The egg-donor agency fee: $8,000-10,000. The fertility clinic’s bill (including genetic testing, blood tests, STD screening and a psychiatric evaluation for all parties, sperm testing, egg extraction, insemination, the growing, selecting, freezing and implantation of the resulting embryos): up to $70,000. And that’s if it all goes well: if no embryos are created during a cycle, or if the embryos that are don’t lead to a successful pregnancy, they would have to start again.

"Then there’s the cost of a surrogate (called a “gestational carrier” when they carry embryos created from another woman’s eggs). Maggipinto and Briskin were told agency fees alone could stretch to $25,000, and the surrogates themselves should be paid a minimum of $60,000 (it is illegal for surrogates to be paid in the UK, but their expenses are covered by the intended parents). “That payment doesn’t include reimbursement for things like maternity clothing; lost wages if she misses work for doctors’ appointments or is put on bed rest; transportation; childcare for her own children; [or] lodging.” It takes 15 minutes for Maggipinto to run me through all the expenses they could incur if they tried to have a child genetically related to one of them. The bottom line? “Two hundred thousand dollars, minimum,” he says.

...

"Briskin used to work for the City of New York as an assistant district attorney, earning about $60,000 a year. His employment benefits had included generous health insurance. But when they read the policy, they discovered they were the only class of people to be excluded from IVF coverage. Infertility was defined as an inability to have a child through heterosexual sex or intrauterine insemination. That meant straight people and lesbians working for the City of New York would have the costs of IVF covered, but gay male couples could never be eligible.

...

"There’s a stark contrast between American and Ukrainian surrogates, Maggipinto says. “Here you have to be a woman who has already had children, who is over a certain age, who can prove that she is independently financially capable of sustaining herself without her surrogate compensation. You effectively cannot be a poor surrogate.” He is referring to the American Society for Reproductive Medicine’s guidelines, but with no official regulation in the US, there’s no compulsion for anyone to follow them.

...

"The EEOC will rule on whether the terms of Briskin’s health insurance were discriminatory within a few weeks. The City of New York has so far defended its policy. The couple’s attorney, Peter Romer-Friedman, tells me: “They say their healthcare plan doesn’t provide surrogacy for anyone, so it’s not discrimination to deny it to Corey and Nicholas.” Just like everyone else, the city’s first response was to assume this was all about access to surrogacy."

Wednesday, July 20, 2022

Debate on international surrogacy in Norway

 In Norway, where surrogacy is illegal, there is a debate about whether surrogacy conducted legally in other countries should also be criminalized for Norwegians.

The Norwegian Broadcasting Co. (NRK) has the story (with a little help from Google translate):

Familieminister mener surrogati skal kunne være straffbart The Minister of Family Affairs believes that surrogacy should be punishable by Chris Burke Marthe  and Ingrid Tinmannsvik

"The debate about surrogacy has created debate in Norway over several years. In 2022, surrogacy is illegal in Norway.

"Minister for Children and Families Kjersti Toppe (Sp) believes it should still be illegal to have children in this way.

...

"surrogacy in itself can be compared to human trafficking. A commercial industry where there is a great danger of exploiting vulnerable women. Shall we make children an item you can order and buy?"

...

"No one knows how many surrogate children come to Norway each year. But last year, 61 Norwegian fathers said that they became the father of a child in one of the countries it is most common to go to for surrogacy. It shows figures the Ministry of Foreign Affairs has obtained from the foreign service missions.

"About 10 years ago, the Storting passed an exemption which means that people who have children through surrogacy abroad cannot be punished.

"Tops voted against the law change and still disagrees.

...

"Anette Trettebergstuen (Labor Party), Minister of Culture and Gender Equality, reacts to Toppe's comparison of surrogacy and human trafficking.

...

"She believes a ban on punishment would not work in practice.

"- Should parents who bring a baby to the country be imprisoned? It will definitely be against the best interests of the child. And even if fines were imposed, many would probably think it was worth it", she says."


HT: Øivind Schøyen

Wednesday, May 11, 2022

Surrogacy in wartime Ukraine

 The NY Times follows the war-disrupted surrogacy market in Ukraine, where in addition to the normal surrogacy issues, surrogates have to decide whether to deliver in Ukraine or in Poland (where surrogacy isn't recognized), and parents have to decide whether to attend the birth in Lviv or wait for the baby in Poland.  It's tough stuff, for both surrogates and parents.  I'll just excerpt some of the background information on surrogacy.

The Nightmare of Being a Surrogate Mother in Wartime. Ukraine’s booming surrogacy business has become a logistical and ethical mess — and hell for the women at the center.   By Susan Dominus

"After a friend of hers worked as a surrogate, Maryna started considering the possibility. Ukrainian law required that women who would be hired as surrogates had already successfully given birth, and she had two healthy daughters. By helping another family, she hoped to buy a home, a goal that would otherwise have been a significant stretch for her and her husband, who worked on cars. On Aug. 21, she was impregnated with two embryos for a couple in North America. Surrogates for Delivering Dreams typically earn around $18,000 a year, but because she was pregnant with twins, she would be paid a bonus of several thousand more. In Ukraine, a typical schoolteacher would make less than a quarter of that over the course of a year.

...

"Delivering Dreams, Kersch-Kibler’s agency, celebrates, in its name, the meaningful benefit of surrogacy to both parties in the arrangement — for the parents, the gift of a biological child; for the surrogate mother, a potentially life-altering sum of money. That arrangement is also, however, a business contract, which entails, for the expectant women, a job — one with managers, rules, oversight and risks to their physical health.

"Even as reproductive technology has advanced, the number of countries that explicitly permit international paid surrogacy has dropped. Opponents of the practice argue that the transactional arrangement commodifies one of the most profound human experiences, the birth of a child. Feminists tend to divide on the ethical issue of surrogacy, with some seeing in the practice a means of financial autonomy, and others perceiving it, especially in less-developed countries, as a kind of reproductive coercion: Could a woman really be said to have choice in deciding to become a surrogate, if doing so was the only way to lift her family out of poverty?

"Concerns about trafficking and exploitation led India to pass a law in 2019 that officially shut down what was once, according to a 2012 estimate, a $2.3 billion surrogacy industry. Cambodia, Thailand and Nepal also once served as frequent destinations for foreigners seeking paid surrogates until those countries, too, legally restricted the practice.

"In those countries, as in many others, the only form of surrogacy allowed is among nationals, provided that no compensation is received. Altruistic surrogacy — in which only pregnancy-related expenses are covered — is legal in countries like England and the Netherlands; in heavily Catholic countries like France, Belgium and Spain, the intended parents of children born to surrogates often face challenges claiming their legal rights as parents, despite a European Court of Human Rights decision, finalized in 2019, that recognized children’s inherent right to belong to their biological families. In other countries, like Argentina and Albania, the law does not address the issue one way or another, diminishing the market for commercial surrogacy, as the ambiguity leaves all parties vulnerable in the event of a dispute. In the United States, legal protections vary state by state: Some states, like Illinois and California, allow surrogacy contracts; others do not recognize surrogacy contracts but do provide for judicial recognition of intended parents’ claims to children born with the help of a surrogate. In Michigan, paying a woman to be a surrogate is a felony.

...

"Since various countries have restricted international surrogacy, agencies have rushed in to take advantage of Ukraine’s relatively well regulated market. One Ukrainian embryologist has estimated that before the war, roughly 3,200 implantations were performed in the country each year — creating, through the fees and also the associated tourism, a new, thriving economic sector. Typically, parents who opt for surrogacy fly into the country and work with a local clinic, conceiving embryos that are subsequently implanted in the wombs of Ukrainian women whom they have interviewed (usually by video call) or chosen from descriptions the agency provides. In some, but not all, cases, the parents choose to build a relationship with the woman carrying their child, texting regularly, even flying in to visit her; almost always, the parents fly back into the country nine months later, either to be there for the birth, if all parties agree, or to receive their newborn and take the child back home.

"Even under the best of circumstances, the arrangement can be fraught. Now, Ukraine’s surrogates are working under the worst of circumstances, forcing everyone involved — agencies, intended parents and surrogates — to make decisions based on imperfect information regarding matters of life and death. The starkness of war has laid bare the many ethical tensions that exist in surrogacy arrangements, casting into bold relief the power dynamics that underlie a contract in which a woman signs over the whole of her physical self.

Sunday, March 20, 2022

Surrogacy disrupted in Ukraine

Along with all the other stories of struggle and courage coming to us from the Russian invasion of Ukraine, are those about surrogates, surrogate agencies, and intended parents trying to complete the transaction by uniting parents with newborns.

The WSJ has the story:

Ukraine Is a World Leader in Surrogacy, but Babies Are Now Stranded in a War Zone By Isabel Coles

"In the basement beneath one apartment block in Kyiv, 19 newborns lie in plastic cots, their cries mingling with the blare of air-raid sirens warning of incoming Russian strikes.

"The war in Ukraine has prevented their biological parents, in Canada, Germany, France and elsewhere from claiming babies born via the country’s many surrogate mothers.

“The number is growing every day,” said Denys Herman, legal adviser to Ukraine’s largest surrogacy agency, BioTexCom. It works with 600 surrogate mothers, some of whom gave birth to the babies being kept there. They are currently in the care of Ukrainian nannies.

"As Russia ramps up a violent push to take strategic cities, the fate of hundreds of surrogate mothers carrying babies, and newborns, across the country is becoming increasingly perilous. Hundreds of expectant parents are struggling to reach them.

...

"Surrogacy is big business in the country. While commercial surrogacy is legal in the U.S., Ukraine is a more affordable option for many couples looking for surrogate mothers. The process costs $43,000 in Ukraine, compared with $130,000 in the U.S., according to a 2020 study conducted by Australia’s Monash University. That has helped turn Ukraine into the second-most popular international surrogacy destination after the U.S., according to the study."

Saturday, September 18, 2021

Surrogacy law under review in New Zealand

 From the U. of Canterbury:

Who are my parents? Why New Zealand’s ‘creaky’ surrogacy laws are overdue for major reform by Debra Wilson, Annick Masselot,  and Martha Ceballos 

"several separate pieces of legislation cover the two types of surrogacy: gestational, where the child is not genetically related to the surrogate parent; and traditional, where the child is genetically related.

The resulting legal confusion is now the subject of a Law Commission review, which proposes significant reform based on the guiding principle that “the best interests of the child should be paramount”.

Right now, that cannot be said of the way surrogate children and their parents are treated under law that even judges have described as “creaky” and “inadequate”.

 ...

Surrogacy is regulated through the Human Assisted Reproductive Technology Act, which prohibits commercial surrogacy and requires gestational surrogacy to be approved by an ethics committee.

But that act is silent on the legal parentage of the child, leaving this to be determined by the Status of Children Act. Effectively, the woman who gives birth and her partner (if the partner consents to the assisted reproduction) are the child’s legal parents.

This means the intended parents have no legal rights to the child – even if they are the genetic parents – until they adopt the child under the Adoption Act.

But legal parentage is important. Legal parents transfer citizenship to their children and act on their behalf, such as giving consent to medical treatment or travel."

Monday, July 19, 2021

Surrogacy in Israel: now available to same sex couples (and single fathers)

 Here's the story from the Washington Post:

Israel’s high court opens the way for same-sex couples to have children via surrogacy  By Claire Parker

"A decision by Israel’s supreme court Sunday paved the way for same-sex couples to have children through surrogacy, capping a decade-old legal battle in what activist groups hailed as a major advance for LGBTQ rights in Israel.

"Restrictions on surrogacy for same-sex couples and single fathers in Israel must be lifted within six months, the court ruled, giving authorities time to prepare for the change while making clear that it is a definitive one

...

"Surrogacy was already permitted for heterosexual couples and single women. The law excluded same-sex couples, however, and some who couldn’t have kids with surrogate mothers in Israel turned to surrogates overseas.

...

"Israel is considered a leader in the Middle East on LGBTQ rights: The state recognizes same-sex marriages performed abroad, and LGBTQ-identifying individuals serve openly in the military and the parliament. Same-sex couples cannot be married in Israel, however, and ultra-Orthodox communities and politicians remain hostile to LGBTQ rights"

Monday, April 19, 2021

Controversial Markets: Public lecture at the Zurich Center for Market Design (video)

 A video of my April 13 lecture on Controversial Markets is now available at the Zurich Center for Market Design. (The talk proper is about an hour, and then includes some Q&A about compensation for donors, among other things, starting at around minute 56.)

Here's a direct link:


Sunday, February 28, 2021

What Motivates Paternalism? By Ambuehl, ,Bernheim and Ockenfels in the AER

 I have long been interested in repugnant transactions, which some people would like to engage in and others, not themselves involved in the transaction ('third parties') think should be forbidden.  That's a big class of phenomena (even when we exclude transactions that third parties object to because they might suffer negative externalities). In some cases (e.g. opposition to same sex marriage) there seems to be a lack of empathy with those who want or need to transact in ways that third parties object to. In other cases (e.g. opposition to surrogacy) there often seems to be a desire to protect vulnerable parties  (e.g. potential surrogate mothers) from entering into a transaction that the objecting third parties believe would harm the surrogates.  This latter kind of objection often falls under the label "paternalism."

Here's a paper in the latest AER that explores and finds paternalism in the lab.

What Motivates Paternalism? An Experimental Study By Sandro Ambuehl, B. Douglas Bernheim, and Axel Ockenfels, American Economic Review  March 2021, 111(3): 787–830, https://doi.org/10.1257/aer.20191039

Abstract: "We study experimentally when, why, and how people intervene in others' choices. Choice Architects (CAs) construct opportunity sets containing bundles of time-indexed payments for Choosers. CAs frequently prevent impatient choices despite opportunities to provide advice, believing Choosers benefit. They violate common behavioral welfare criteria by removing impatient options even when all pay-offs are delayed. CAs intervene not by removing options they wish they could resist when choosing for themselves (mistakes-projective paternalism), but rather as if they seek to align others' choices with their own aspirations (ideals-projective paternalism). Laboratory choices predict subjects' support for actual paternalistic policies. "

Tuesday, February 16, 2021

New York State's new surrogacy law takes effect

NBC has the story:

No Longer an Outlier: New York Ends Commercial Surrogacy Ban.  New York's longstanding ban on commercial surrogate pregnancy is about to end nine years after a bill to rescind it was first introduced.    By David Crary

"Instead of being a national outlier, New York will become a leader, according to experts on surrogacy . They say the new law, passed in April and taking effect on Monday, has a surrogates’ bill of rights providing the nation’s strongest protections for women serving as surrogates.

"Among the provisions: the right to independent legal representation, a guarantee of comprehensive medical coverage, and the right to make their own health care decisions, including whether to terminate or continue a pregnancy.

“We went to California because it had the best laws,” Hoylman said. “Now New York has the best law. We think it’s a model for other states.”

"The new law allows gestational surrogacy on a commercial basis, involving a surrogate who is not genetically related to the embryo. An egg is removed from the intended mother, fertilized with sperm and then transferred to a surrogate — in contrast to so-called traditional surrogacy that involves an egg from the surrogate. The gestational option is welcomed by many LGBTQ people who want to be parents, as well as by couples struggling with infertility.

"With the change in New York, surrogacy advocates say only Louisiana and Michigan have laws explicitly prohibiting paid gestational surrogacy. Nebraska has no explicit ban, but a statute there says paid surrogacy contracts are unenforceable.

...

"Gestational surrogacy routinely costs between $100,000 and $150,000. Hoylman declined to estimate the total costs incurred by him and Sigal but said, “It was worth every penny.”

"Among the standard costs are fees for lawyers and the surrogacy agency, the cost of in vitro fertilization, plus compensation and health insurance for the surrogate. Compensation rates vary widely — generally $25,000 to $50,000.

"The first bill seeking to repeal the New York ban was introduced by Assemblywoman Amy Paulin in 2012, the year Hoylman was elected to the Senate. It floundered for years in the face of staunch opposition by the Roman Catholic Church and some feminists, who argued that paid surrogacy led to the exploitation of women.

“Under this bill, women in economic need become commercialized vessels for rent, and the fetuses they carry become the property of others,” renowned feminist Gloria Steinem wrote to lawmakers in 2019.

"New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who earlier in his tenure pushed hard to legalize same-sex marriage, argued in response that the surrogacy ban was “based in fear, not love” and was especially harmful to same-sex couples."


HT: Nick Arnosti.

**********

Here's a related story from the NY Times:

Meet the Women Who Become SurrogatesNew York State will now allow gestational surrogates to carry babies for other parents. Here’s why they do it.   By David Dodge

"In 1995, Lisa Wippler, having recently retired from the Marines, moved with her husband and two young sons to Oceanside, Calif., and was contemplating her next chapter in life. The answer came while lying in bed one night, reading an article about infertility.

...

"Last year, Ms. Wippler — by this point a three-time surrogate herself — was part of a delegation of surrogacy advocates who traveled to Albany, where she had the opportunity to share her story with lawmakers considering whether to legalize the practice in New York State.

...

"In her advocacy work, Ms. Wippler said, she has been befuddled to hear the arguments put forward by opponents — some of whom contend the surrogacy industry preys on poor and vulnerable women.

“I’m a retired Marine,” she said. “I can guarantee you no one coerced me.”

...

"A surrogate’s compensation varies by a number of factors, including geographic location and whether she is a first time or experienced carrier. At the Los Angeles-based agency where Ms. Wippler now works as the director of surrogate admission, the range falls between $30,000 and $60,000, which is typical across the industry in the United States, she said."

**************

Earlier post: 

Wednesday, April 22, 2020

Saturday, February 13, 2021

Surrogacy still repugnant (and illegal) in Michigan

Michigan is now one of only a handful of U.S. states that criminalize commercial surrogacy and/or don't recognize (or severely restrict) parental rights in gestational surrogacy. The NY Times has the story about Michigan resident surrogate parents of twins, from their own eggs and sperm, who have to jump through hoops to adopt them.

Couple Forced to Adopt Their Own Children After a Surrogate Pregnancy. Tammy and Jordan Myers will have to adopt their twins after two Michigan judges denied them parental rights because the children had been carried by a surrogate.  By Maria Cramer

"Twice, judges have denied their requests to be declared the legal parents of the twins, even though a fertility doctor said in an affidavit that the babies are the couple’s biological children. In separate affidavits, the surrogate and her husband have agreed that the Myerses are the parents of the twins.

"The Myerses have started the adoption process, which will entail home visits from a social worker, personal questions about their upbringing and their approach to parenting, and criminal background checks. They said they have already submitted their fingerprints.

...

In 2020, New York passed a law that lifted its ban against compensating women who act as surrogates. Louisiana prohibits compensating surrogates but recognizes agreements or contracts in which a woman has volunteered to be a surrogate, Mr. Vaughn said. The state allows such agreements only for married heterosexual couples.

"But Michigan has a far-reaching law that does not recognize any agreement with a woman who agrees to be inseminated or implanted with an embryo, he said. The law also does not recognize the parental rights of the intended parents.

...

"Under Michigan’s law, paying a woman to act as a surrogate is a felony punishable by up to five years in prison and a $50,000 fine, said Melissa Neckers, the lawyer for the couple.

...

"In 2015, the Myerses were trying to have a second child when Ms. Myers, 39, learned she had breast cancer. She immediately had her eggs harvested before undergoing multiple surgeries, including a partial hysterectomy and a bilateral mastectomy.

...

"In a post on Facebook, the couple described their story and need to find an unpaid volunteer who would be willing to help them have a baby. Ms. Vermilye, 35, who also lives in Grand Rapids, read the post and sent them a note saying she was interested.

“My husband and I had talked about how I had a gift of carrying and delivering very easily,” said Ms. Vermilye, who has a girl and a boy who are 6 and 9. “We felt like it was kind of unfair that we had it so easy and have friends and family that don’t."

**************

The United States Surrogacy Law Map.  State-by-State Gestational Surrogacy Law & Statutes

Thursday, February 4, 2021

The demand for a uterus transplant among transgender women (a survey study)

 A couple of years ago I gave a Department of Surgery Grand Rounds (a dawn seminar) at Stanford. Much later in the day, at dinner with transplant surgeons and others, someone asked me what other kinds of work I did.  So I started to tell them about my work on repugnant transactions and controversial markets, and used surrogacy as my main example. I pointed out that Sweden, where surrogacy is illegal, had pioneered uterus transplantation as an alternative that worked for some. But I suggested it wouldn't work for same-sex male couples, who are among those who use the well established legal market for surrogates in California.  The conversation quickly turned to why I was wrong.  As I recall what they said, the uterus is just a muscle, so could be transplanted into a man. Ovaries would be a problem, so in-vitro fertilization (IVF) would be needed to start the pregnancy, and of course the baby would have to be delivered via a C-section...

Since then, uterus transplantation has become somewhat more widespread, from both living and deceased donors.  As far as I know, no one is actually proposing to transplant a uterus into a man--for one thing, the demand may not be there.  But that's not the case with another group of people born without a uterus, namely transgender women.

Here's a recent survey from JAMA on just that, which shows that in fact there are transgender women who are open to bearing a child through a uterus transplant:

Jones BP, Rajamanoharan A, Vali S, et al. Perceptions and Motivations for Uterus Transplant in Transgender Women. JAMA Netw Open. 2021;4(1):e2034561. doi:10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2020.34561

"Key Points

"Question  What are the perceptions and motivations of transgender women for uterus transplant?

"Findings  This survey study of 182 transgender women found that to more than 90% of the respondents indicated that uterus transplant may improve quality of life in transgender women, alleviate dysphoric symptoms, and enhance feelings of femininity.

"Meaning  This report on the desire and willingness of transgender women to undergo uterus transplant may support the need for further animal and cadaveric model research, which is necessary to assess the feasibility of performing this procedure in transgender women"