Watch Nightline Tonight - about "Designer Babies"
Watch Nightline tonight for coverage as follows:http://abcnews.go.com/Nightline/story?id=2895615&page=1?For more information, go to www.ericksonlaw.net
Arkansas Woman Scammed By Surrogate Mother - Isn't she a birth mother, not a surrogate???
Posted on todaystvh.com
Early on, she was just certain with no she wasn't talking to anyone else, I was the one, she wanted me to raise her baby,? Chrissy Thompson recalls. ?And I just thought, oh my goodness this is a dream come true.?? However, Thompson's attempt to adopt a child soon turned into a nightmare. Through a message board for surrogate moms, a Wisconsin woman willing to give Thompson the child she was bearing contacted her. It wasn't long before the woman we?ll call ?Melissa? began asking for money. Thompson says, ?Like it was her air conditioner in her apartment, her and her son were burning up. So of course, I went out and bought an air conditioner online and had it shipped to her.? Cell phone bills, medical emergencies, the money needs continued until Thompson was scheduled to fly to Wisconsin for Melissa?s second ultrasound. That's when she called to say she miscarried and the baby was gone. Thompson continues, ?I was devastated. I thought the baby had died. My mother was thinking quicker than I was and she said get the phone number of the hospital, find out what hospital. And we called later on and she was not listed at that hospital.? It was two years later, when Thompson finally learned she was not the only person who thought they were adopting a child from Melissa. As many as 20 others were involved. Thompson says a woman simply trying to scam people out of their money, stole 20 dreams. Right now, Thompson doesn't know if she will ever adopt a child. ?It's a gamble, it's big risk. You have to put your faith in someone,? she says. ?And I don't know of I'm ready to do that or not.? To hear more about the victims, tune in for "Dr. Phil" on Today's THV at 3 p.m. Thursday and Friday for their story. For more information, go to www.ericksonlaw.netDr. Phil Addresses Adoption Scams
Please tune in to Dr. Phil.? See schedule for the shows regarding adoption scams.?http://www.drphil.com/shows/show/851/For more information, go to www.ericksonlaw.net?
Offering Hope: Frozen egg results in pregnancy, team of local doctor says
STAMFORD -- An experimental procedure using frozen eggs has resulted in the first pregnancy of its kind in the state, officials from a local fertility clinic said.A team of doctors at the New England Fertility Institute froze the unfertilized eggs of an anonymous 25-year-old donor for six months, then used one of her thawed eggs to impregnate a 37-year-old woman.The recipient is in the third month of her pregnancy, which appears to be progressing normally, said Dr. Gad Lavy, medical director and founder of the Stamford-based for-profit treatment center on Summer Street. Doctors would not release the pregnant woman's identity but said she is a Fairfield County resident."The reason we were excited about this is we think this is the first pregnancy from frozen eggs in the state," Lavy said. "Once it is established as a working method, I think a lot of people will embrace it and use it. It has tremendous potential."The New England Fertility Institute is one of a number of fertility clinics in the state exploring the use of egg freezing - the scientific term is oocyte cyropreservation - to preserve fertility in aging women.For a healthy birth, an egg must successfully undergo freezing, defrosting, fertilization, implantation and embryo development.It's a complicated procedure because eggs have a delicate cell structure that makes them susceptible to damage by ice crystals, Lavy said.It's a trend that could change the way young women look at pregnancy, allowing them to push motherhood to an indefinite future date.Egg freezing is still in its infancy and has produced an estimated 300 babies worldwide, according to a Yale fertility specialist. But no one keeps official statistics. The medical community views it as a highly experimental procedure, said Sean Tipton, an American Society of Reproductive Medicine spokesman."There is not a great deal of carefully done published data that indicates that the success rate is yet high enough to say that this is a procedure that should be offered broadly," Tipton said. "There are many scattered reports of success, but broader replicable studies have been a little tougher to come by."Despite the limited success rate, several fertility centers in the state have begun offering clients the option to freeze their eggs, though mostly on a research basis.The New England Fertility Center began offering egg freezing to patients in the past year and about 10 women have signed up.Postponing the ticking of the biological clock is just one reason women are interested in keeping their eggs at subzero temperatures, Lavy said.Couples pursuing in vitro fertilization, or IVF, with ethical concerns about excess embryos are expressing interest in the technology. Egg freezing also is an option for women undergoing radiation or chemotherapy who are concerned about potential damage to their ovaries.It can cost upward of $8,500 for freezing eggs and later thawing them and using conventional IVF methods. Patients have not been charged for egg freezing because it is such a new procedure, Lavy said.The center began experimenting with thawing frozen eggs over the past three years, using eggs from donors. They recently thawed three eggs, one of which was implanted in the woman who is now pregnant."It's very difficult to get immediate results. This is why we turned to the donor eggs, which we can turn around quickly," Lavy said. "You have to show that you have successful pregnancies."The center uses the slow freezing method, a procedure perfected by scientists in Italy who learned to freeze unfertilized eggs after the government banned freezing embryos.A woman who wants to freeze her eggs must take drugs to produce multiple eggs, as is typical in IVF, Lavy said.After the eggs are removed from a woman's ovaries, a lab technician places them in a machine called the Kyro 10, which lowers the temperature of the eggs in stages.The eggs are then frozen in cryogenic tanks the size of a large washing machine, where they are stored in stacked vials.The tank is submerged in liquid nitrogen, which keeps the eggs at minus 196 degrees Celsius, a temperature that preserves the egg and prevents cell damage.Water in the cell turns into ice during the freezing process and can eventually cause a portion of the egg to swell or rupture.Fertility centers now use cryoprotectants, which act like antifreeze, to protect the egg during freezing and thawing.Despite these advents, the chances of becoming pregnant from a frozen egg are slim.A recent study that compared the outcome of IVF with frozen eggs versus unfrozen eggs showed a low success rate using frozen eggs, according to an article published in the July issue of Fertility and Sterility, a medical journal.The chance of one sperm-injected egg becoming a live infant was 6.6 percent using unfrozen eggs, and 3.4 percent with frozen eggs, the study showed.Those statistics can be disheartening to women who believe they put motherhood on hold by freezing their eggs, said Dr. Claudio Benadiva, director of the IVF lab at the University of Connecticut Health Center's Center for Advanced Reproductive Services."If you are going to tell patients that this is a standard of care or that it is ready for prime time, it is a little bit misleading because it is not," Benadiva said.UConn doctors take a cautious approach to egg freezing and began offering it this fall to a limited number of patients through a study, Benadiva said.Only couples undergoing IVF who don't want to freeze additional embryos for ethical or religious reasons can participate in the study, which has not resulted in any pregnancies, Benadiva said. These patients are not charged fees for egg freezing."Until we have some success and some results, we don't want to offer this to patients because it is not fair," he said. "The people who want to freeze their eggs are not going to use them for several years and we don't want to make them think they have their fertility guaranteed."Doctors at the Yale Fertility Center have taken a similar approach. They have frozen about 28 eggs since the center began offering the service last year, said Dr. Pasquale Patrizio, director of the fertility center. Patients are not charged for freezing the eggs, though they pay for egg retrieval, monitoring and storage after the first year.About 20 of Yale's frozen eggs have come from women who have breast cancer, but most of the remaining ones have come from women holding off on motherhood, Patrizio said. No live births have resulted because nobody has requested to thaw their eggs for IVF, he said.A 40-year-old graduate student who wanted to remain anonymous said she is freezing her eggs at the Yale Fertility Center. She and her husband have been married about a year, but are not ready to have children and have moral objections to freezing embryos, she said."There are things in our personal lives that are preventing us from having children right now, so it just felt a little bit less ethically messy," she said. "It almost feels like I'm kind of getting a chance to preserve my youth a little bit, too."Patrizio said he believes egg freezing will become an accepted practice as doctors continue to document healthy births and refine the procedure."My guess is that in the next six months, as the number of births reported worldwide increases, it will put the technology into the mainstream of treatments available," he said. "Therefore, we will lose this kind of experimental label it has now."For More Information, go to www.ericksonlaw.net
Single Men Using Surrogates To Create Families
Single men across South Florida who want to become fathers are creating families using third-party surrogates.Jack Potenza said he believes that technology has offered him an incredible opportunity.Potenza was one of the first single fathers in South Florida on the cutting edge of a new trend: men who hear their biological clock ticking and decide to answer the call.Potenza's son, Sagan, is 5. His twin brother, Andrew, is three months younger."I really felt that biologically it was either then or probably never," said Potenza.Dr. Mark Denker is a renowned fertility specialist who is one of the pioneers of this new trend.Surprisingly, I've found that 80 percent of the men that come to this program are normal heterosexual men who just haven't found the right woman and are ready to start a family," said Denker.Potenza was married and he and his former wife came to Dr. Denker's office for fertility treatments. But, before the treatments could work, the two divorced. Suddenly Potenza was in his late 40s, single again and still desperately wanting to be a dad. So, his sperm was joined with eggs from a donor. And the resulting embryo was placed in a gestational surrogate.A few months later, before Sagan was even born, Potenza was so thrilled he asked for a second frozen embryo. The embryo was from the same batch and it was to be implanted in another surrogate mother. The boys are twins, even though they are born 3 months apart.For More Information, go to
Katey Sagal Talks About Her Miracle Baby - Celebrity Moms
Earlier this year Katey Sagal welcomed daughter, Esme, via a surrogate. She is the first child for the couple joining Katey's children, Sarah, 12, and Jackson, 10, from a previous marriage. Katey recently talked with OK! magazine on their newest addition.Here's an excerpt from the interview:On life with EsmeIt's busy but it's really lovely and calm so far. Everybody is very excited and my older kids are very happy she's here. She fits right in. She's healthy and perfect. I think the biggest change has been realizing I now have three kids.On choosing surrogacyWe thought long and hard about it. It's not a quick or easy decision. When Kurt and I met, I already had two children and he'd never had children of his own before. I had always wanted more children, so I got into that conversation quickly. I'd had some medical issues after the birth of my other tow and I was unable to carry a child, so we were always looking at alternative approaches. We headed down the adoption road at the same time we were investigating the surrogacy road and left it to whatever happened first, because we weren't that attached to either way. Our surrogacy situation just fell into place really easily.On being an "older" mom [at 50]?My thing about having another child was time's a-wasting! I thought about being an older parent and what that means for another child, but I was somewhat of an older parent when I had Sarah and Jackson [in my] late 30s. I have an enormous family with many cousins, and Esme has an older brother and sister. So, I felt it was okay to do this.On having a third child:It's just so different when you have the third child, and I don't mean to slight her in any way, but I remember with my first child, everything was so perfectly in place and I took those nine months and made this unbelivable nursery. With my second one, that kind of loosened up, and now, by my third one -- it's all been fun and fantastic, but not as stressful.For more information go to www.ericksonlaw.net?
Study Finds Rise In Women Who Provide Egg Donations Are Not Coerced By Money
Women who are providing their own human eggs for donation to infertile parents are on the rise. Human egg donation used to be considered a rarity. However, the current demand for eggs and the increasing compensation provided to donors has been studied to determine if women have been more compelled to contemplate donation and go ahead and exchange their eggs for money. "...Researchers concluded that, although the egg donors had good use for the money they received as compensation, $5,000 is not so high as to be coercive. Increasing reimbursement to $7,000 might attract more donors, but it is not clear whether it would increase the risk of coercion," according to the highlights of the ASRM. The process of egg donation used to be something that women only considered for a close sibling who was unable to conceive. Now it seems to have become so commonplace for women to choose to undergo this process that money as the motivator has been under review. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) only recently enacted U.S. regulations regarding donor cells and tissues, including egg donations in May 2005. Patient safety was the main agenda for the FDA, as regulations now require testing the donor for infectious diseases before donations are allowed. However, compensation for the recruitment for egg donors continues to stir up a lot of debate. Most of the professionals agree that egg donors should receive compensation for their time, effort and discomfort, according to the highlights from the 62nd Annual Meeting of the American Society for Reproductive Medicine (ASRM). The amount of compensation varies based on location, policies of the respective clinic, and various agency involvements, among other differing ethical opinions. Usually most donors receive in the range of $5,000 to $10,000 for their egg donation. Researchers in Illinois had surveyed anonymous donors who had already donated their eggs to determine the motivation behind their decision. The survey was conducted to clarify the extent of whether or not their decision was influenced by their desire for compensation. The 3-year study concluded that none of the donors spent their reimbursement on luxury items or vacations. Most of the donors surveyed (80%) stated that they would donate again. However, they also felt that higher compensation would be required, because of taxes incurred. "It is essential that egg donors be fairly compensated. The procedure asks a lot of them: to conscientiously follow a strict schedule of injections and to undergo some uncomfortable, sometimes painful procedures. The compensation is recognition that egg donation requires serious dedication and effort and that there are some risks involved. "Many women who investigate the possibility of becoming an egg donor decide not to do so when they learn more about the hard work that is required. Yet even though the demand for egg donors is increasing, compensation must not rise to levels that cause potential donors to disregard their own serious personal reservations. "Likewise, compensation based on donors' personal attributes is not justifiable. Our Ethics Committee has provided some guidance in this matter, which should be followed," stated David Adamson, MD, and VP of ASRM. Egg donors are "very altruistic and very willing to help a couple who's trying to conceive," says Dr. David Grainger, who is also a reproductive endocrinologist at the University of Kansas, according to an AP report. For more information, go to www.ericksonlaw.net
Bill targeting paid surrogate brokers moves on - Senate panel OKs bill to make arranging surrogacy births for money a misdemeanor
By Kevin Corcoran The Hamilton County adoption of twins born to a surrogate mother could spark a change in state law making it a crime to be paid for arranging surrogate births. The Senate Judiciary Committee voted unanimously Wednesday to recommend Senate passage of a bill that would punish people who arrange surrogate births in exchange for anything of value. They would face misdemeanor convictions and up to a year in jail and a $5,000 fine for each offense.
Non-Biological Mothers in Utah Beware!
By Trish on LesbianFamily.orgThe Utah Supreme Court handed down their opinion on Jones v. Barlow today.The case involves Keri Jones and Cheryl Barlow.? The two women conceived a child via?a.i.?and then?when the child was 2, their relationship ended.? Barlow?now claims that she is no longer gay and doesn?t want her child exposed to that ?lifestyle?.??Despite the lower courts? rulings that?Jones be allowed visitation with her daughter, Barlow repeatedly denied visitation.? Jones had to continually return to the courts to get chances to see her daughter.??The case was argued before the Utah Supreme Court back in August of 2005.? The decision was handed down today.
We hold that the doctrine of in loco parentis, as recognized by the courts of this state, does not independently grant standing to seek visitation after the in loco parentis relationship has ended. Although this court recognized the right of stepparents to seek visitation in Gribble v. Gribble, 583 P.2d 64 (Utah 1978), standing in that case arose out of an interpretation of statutory law granting such rights, not from an independent common law source. We decline to extend the common law doctrine of in loco parentis to create standing where it does not arise out of statute. We accordingly overturn the trial court?s grant of visitation rights and hold that the common law doctrine of in loco parentis does not independently grant standing to seek visitation against the wishes of a fit legal parent.
??So.? It doesn?t matter that Jones and Barlow planned, together, to conceive this child.? It doesn?t matter that they created legal paperwork to protect Jones? relationship to their child.? It doesn?t matter that the child considers Jones to be her mother.? None of this matters because Barlow no longer wants Jones to be the child?s parent, and Barlow?s wishes are the only ones that count. Reading the opinion, I can?t help but?note that Barlow?s move to Texas?(against a court order) actually helped Barlow?s case after all.?
??Because it is clear that Barlow effectively ended the in loco parentis relationship when she moved to another residence and refused to allow Jones to interact with the child
??Barlow stole that child away and has?ultimately been?rewarded for it.Another gem from the opinion:
?On the one hand, we recognize that mutual bonds of affection can be formed between a child and an adult who does not fit within the traditional definition of a parent and that such a relationship has the potential to enrich the lives of both the surrogate parent and the child. However, in carving out a permanent role in the child?s life for a surrogate parent, this court would necessarily subtract from the legal parent?s right to direct the upbringing of her child and expose the child to inevitable conflict between the surrogate and the natural parents. Such a doctrine raises concerns that a legal parent could be deprived of a portion of her parental rights on the basis of ?elusive factual determinations? as to whether she intended to relinquish those rights to a third party.
All the documentation?Jones and Barlow created when they were in love that they intended to form a family, that Barlow intended to?give birth to a child that she wanted Jones to help parent for?the rest of that child?s life, that Jones was considered a parent by Barlow; all those things that we all do to try and establish our families as families in the absence of equal marriage and adoption rights, in the end all of that means nothing?to the courts.? ?No one expects that they will fall out of love with their partners.? No one expects that if they do fall out of love, their break-up will degenerate to horrifying lows of legal nastiness.? No one expects that their partner will turn into the kind of person who would do anything to keep you from the child you planned together, out of spite and anger.? And yet, it can happen.And now, if you live in Utah, spite and anger will win.My heart is breaking for Keri Jones and her daughter.? My heart is breaking for every non-bio mom here in Utah, including myself.
Young Women Exploited In Egg Donation Process, Bioethecist Says
By Mark EllisSenior Correspondent, ASSIST News ServiceTIBURON, CALIFORNIA (ANS) -- Stanford University student Calla Papademus answered an ad offering $50,000 for egg ?donation? that sounded like easy money. She didn?t realize the risks of egg harvesting, suffered a stroke, and spent more than six weeks in a coma. Having survived a narrow brush with death, she now regrets her ill-informed decision.?They?re targeting young women,? says Jennifer Lahl, founder of the Center for Bioethics and Culture. ?Young women assume when they go into a medical clinic to donate their eggs, the clinic has their best interests at heart,? she says. ?But young women are not being informed of the risks.? Harvested eggs from young collegiates?especially those with high SAT scores and the right skin color?sell for a premium to wealthy infertile couples as well as human cloning researchers. Women often receive more than $5,000 per donation.At puberty, girls have a finite supply of eggs?anywhere from 400-500 will be available during their reproductive life span which are slowly depleted during the natural aging process. Egg harvesting removes up to 40 eggs at a time. Some young women?motivated by financial need?undergo the procedure multiple times, which places themselves at risk of infertility later in life.Currently, there is no monitoring or regulation of the number of times a woman may donate eggs. ?An egg donor walks out of a clinic and falls off the face of the earth,? Lahl notes. One woman?Julia Derek, admitted to donating eggs 12 times in her book ?Confessions of a Serial Egg Donor.?To harvest the eggs, women go through a procedure known as ovarian hyperstimulation. For two weeks, women inject themselves with fertility drugs such as Lupron or Pergonal daily. Extracting the eggs involves a surgical procedure at a clinic, where an ultrasound probe guides a 12-inch needle into each ovary. There is a risk of puncturing or lacerating surrounding tissues, which can lead to acute ovarian trauma, infection, infertility, and vaginal bleeding.Surprisingly, the drugs used in ovarian hyperstimulation procedures are not approved by the FDA for this use. ?Lupron, the drug most commonly used for ovarian hyperstimulation, is FDA approved for prostate cancer,? according to Lahl, but not for ovarian hyperstimulation. ?Women are having strokes and organ failures and dying,? she says. ?Maybe we should stop and see what?s going on here.?Complications of the procedure are known as Ovarian Hyperstimulation Syndrome (OHSS).In testimony before the Massachusetts State Legislature last year, Dr. Pia de Solenni, Ph.D. outlined the risks: ?Complications from the procedure include a potential link to ovarian cysts and cancers, severe pelvic pain, rupture of the ovaries, stroke, possible negative effects on future fertility, and even death.?A 32-year-old Irish woman died in February 2003 from complications of OHSS. Two other women in the UK had severe complications. One collapsed and died at a bus stop while undergoing ovarian hyperstimulation. The other had several strokes which left her brain damaged and in need of long-term care.?In clinical studies using Pergonal for ovarian hyperstimulation, 2.4-5.5 percent of women developed complications,? noted Dr. de Solenni in her testimony. ?Similarly, the FDA?s data on Lupron, another drug used for ovarian hyperstimulation, records a death rate of .5 percent.?Lahl argues these percentages?even if small?merit further investigation. ?It?s not a common occurrence that women die from this,? she notes. ?But we need to understand the short and long-term risk.??How many times can a woman do this?every single month?? she asks. ?We?re playing with fire here. We don?t have to agree on the rights of the unborn, but we do need to be mindful of women?s health and safety.?
NU Professor Says Egg Donors Should Not Be Compensated
By Erin DostalThe Daily NorthwesternIn the debate about whether women should be paid for the donations of their eggs to stem cell research, a Feinberg professor says egg donation is an altruistic act and thus should not require payment.As one of the authors of recent guidelines for the International Society for Stem Cell Research, bioethics and medical humanities Prof. Laurie Zoloth said payment for egg donation was ethically questionable."Donation of body parts is a priceless act," Zoloth said. "It seems to me that it's morally inconsistent to set a price on them."Her views conflicted with colleagues, and the guidelines were ultimately left open when they were published Feb. 2 in the journal of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.Some others propose offering women thousands of dollars for egg donation. But Zoloth said she fears large payments could influence low-income women to donate without considering the medical risks and moral implications of their actions."I think calling it 'donation' would imply that it is a freely given gift," Zoloth said. "If they're going to talk about payment, they need to think about calling it an exchange."Payment for participation in clinical scientific research is common practice. Payment for donation of body parts, such as blood, bone marrow or organs is not, she said.Insoo Hyun, a member of the society's International Human Embryonic Stem Cell Guidelines Task Force, said he strongly favors payment because he believes it is the "fair" thing to do.The relevant argument, according to Hyun, is whether egg donation for stem cell research is considered clinical or therapeutic. Egg donation would be considered therapeutic if it directly benefited a specific patient, giving the donation an altruistic component, Hyun said. But because stem cell research is still in early laboratory stages, Hyun said he sees donation as participation in a clinical study."Organ donation is normally thought to be best done altruistically because there's a clear therapeutic benefit," Hyun said. "Egg donation for stem cell research is not for therapeutic benefit. We're not there yet."Egg donation is related "much more closely to the moral gesture of donating body parts" because the eggs are used for the sole purpose of creating embryos, Zoloth said. She said that because egg donation is similar to blood or bone marrow donation, it should not be compensated.Hyun said more women would probably be willing to donate if compensation was provided, given that women spend about 40 hours completing the full donation process.To harvest eggs, women undergo weeks of hormone injections to stimulate egg production. Donation involves a minor surgical procedure, as well as general or local anesthetic.Today in the United States, no women receive payment for egg donation beyond direct expenses, such as parking and medical fees. Women are not paid for their time off work or for the eggs themselves."I think the model to look at this entire issue is from the standpoint of how should we treat healthy volunteers for basic research, not how should we treat people who donate organs for transplantation," Hyun said.Reach Erin Dostal at e-dostal@northwestern.edu.
Global trade in human eggs thriving
By EMILY WITHROW, Associated Press Writer
Surrogate-arranger wins in court
By CAROL COMEGNO Courier-Post Staff
A Superior Court judge dismissed a criminal indictment Monday against a former Sewell businessman who hires surrogate mothers for clients. The theft charge against Leonard Brooks was dropped after new evidence surfaced that was not presented to a Burlington County grand jury. The January 2006 indictment alleged Brooks, 37, now of Florida, failed to hire a surrogate mother in 2004 for a client from Evesham who wanted a baby and who paid him $24,000. Superior Court Judge John Almeida dismissed the indictment at the defendant's request after it was revealed Brooks did not have to return a retainer that was part of the overall fee. The retainer amount was not disclosed. Defense lawyer Donald F. Manno said the retainer agreement was never provided to the county prosecutor's office by the alleged victim. Assistant county prosecutor Andrew McDonnell said he had no idea whether there would be a presentation to another grand jury. Brooks once operated the Mid-Atlantic Center for Surrogacy and Egg Donation at 100 Springdale Road, Cherry Hill, but said he now operates a business in Florida. On the advice of his lawyer he declined afterward to say if he still operates the International Surrogacy Center in Palm Beach, Fla. After the hearing, Manno said $18,000 was returned to the client but not the nonrefundable retainer fee.
