Do-It-Yourself Surrogacies - Beware

Posted on February 21, 2008 by Theresa Erickson

I just saw a great blog post that I would like to share:

By Robin von Halle

http://conceptionconnections.wordpress.com

There’s a reason to go with a reputable agency that specializes in matching egg donors and gestational surrogates to those who are unable to bear children through traditional means. Services go beyond vetting candidates to make sure they’re on the up and up and emotionally equipped for the job. We also bring in experts to guide intended parents and donors and surrogates through the complex legal and psychological issues.

The importance of this role has been brought home through news coverage in recent months of heartbreaking situations that have arisen when couples have followed a do-it-yourself path.

Back in October, the Today Show did a story on Tom and Gwyn Lamitina, a Florida couple who fought for but lost custody of their daughter who was born by a surrogate they had hired who decided to keep the baby. Since then, the couple has filed a civil case accusing the surrogate mother of fraud – saying she produced a “litany of lies and dreadful acts of deceit.”

Two months later FOX News told the story of a South Carolina woman accused of promising couples she would be their surrogate – who exploited at least six people out of $14,000.

An agency with a proven track record and references supporting it will help intended parents offset the risks that can be involved with this process. The good ones will provide psychological screening of surrogates, legal representation for all parties and a support system for all those involved.

Caveat emptor is, unfortunately, the operative phrase when people show no qualms to take advantage of couples who are desperate to create families, leaving them financially strung out and without a child.

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Bypassing French Surrogacy Law via California

Posted on February 13, 2008 by Theresa Erickson

The following article is from www.conflictoflaws.net

A few weeks ago, I wrote a post on the story of a French couple who bypassed the French ban on surrogacy by resorting to a Californian surrogate mother. When the couple came back to France, French prosecutors took all available legal steps to deny them recognition of their parental status in France.

I am grateful to Kees Saarloos for forwarding me the judgment of the Paris court of appeal which ruled on the conflict issue on October 25, 2007. The judgment, however, is quite disappointing. It seems that French prosecutors were unable to analyze properly the conflict issues and thus to present a robust argumentation against the recognition of the parental status acquired in the U.S. This enabled the French court to reach a decision without truly addressing the issues. The judgment identified a few of them, but then stressed that they were not put forward by the plaintiff (i.e. the prosecutors), and that it did not need address them.

The judgment is more useful for the background it gives on what happened in California. The California Supreme Court had conferred the parental status to the French couple before the actual birth of the children, and ordered both the hospital in San Diego and the Californian Department of Public Health to mention the couple as the only parents on the hospital registry and the birth certificate. The couple could thus have sought recognition of a variety of foreign public acts. One was the Californian judgment, another was the birth certificate.

In a nutshell, the actual decision of the court can be summarized as follows:

As the plaintiffs have not challenged the recognition of either of these acts in France, their challenge of the transcription of the parental status on the French registries is inadmissible. The foreign acts govern.

The plaintiffs did not challenge the accuracy of the content of the transcription, but only the transcription itself. The issue of whether the couple was actually the parents of the children was therefore not before the court.

Finally, and in any case, failure to provide the couple with a parental status would result in the children having no parents legally speaking, which would not comport with the superior interest of the children.

Remainder of Article: http://www.conflictoflaws.net/2007/jurisdiction/france/flying-to-california-to-bypass-the-french-ban-on-surrogacy-update/

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Donating Eggs for Money?

Posted on February 13, 2008 by Theresa Erickson

What do you think? - good article:

By Paul McLeod

Published on November 13, 2007

When Kirsten — whose name has been changed to protect her privacy — was in college in the early part of this decade, she began hearing discussion about and seeing advertisements offering $20,000 or more to young women who would donate their eggs to infertile couples. Though she passed on the opportunity at the time, she later found herself living in Southern California, with all the expense that entails. "I was job hunting and kept coming across egg donation ads — Craigslist, the paper, magazines," she says. She finally decided that the money — $5,500, plus all expenses paid — was too good to pass up.

Remainder of article: http://www.docshop.com/2007/11/13/miracle-or-madness-the-light-and-dark-sides-of-donating-eggs-for-money/

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Update on Florida Surrogacy Battle over TS baby

Posted on February 13, 2008 by Theresa Erickson

See the following article giving us an update on this case:

OVIEDO, Fla. -- A Central Florida couple who lost a court battle to bring their surrogate baby home is considering another round in court.

 

Three-year-old TJ lives as the only child at the Lamitina home in Oviedo, but his parents remain determined to get his sister home.

 

Tom and Gwyn Lamitina plan to file a civil case in Seminole County Tuesday accusing the surrogate mother they hired, Stephanie Eckard, of fraud -- saying she produced a "litany of lies and dreadful acts of deceit."

http://www.wesh.com/news/15217274/detail.html

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