Friday Legal Updates™- Australia Surrogacy, Indiana Surrogacy & Twitter/Facebook IVF Fund
Surrogacy News has been big this week in Australia, specifically in Queensland - and our updates will focus on where this will take the people of Australia in their quest to have a child via surrogacy. But, first we will start with Indiana, where a couple is fighting for the right to have their names on the birth certificate of their child.
Indiana - The biological parents of a child born via surrogacy are challenging a ruling by the Indiana courts. The Court of Appeals is to hear arguments this week. A trial court denied their request as follows:
"A trial court judge denied the biological parents' petition to establish paternity and maternity for the child, ruling that "Indiana law does not permit a non birth mother to establish maternity. Indiana law holds the birth mother is the legal maternal mother." The surrogate mother filed an affidavit in support of the biological parents' petition. The biological parents appealed, arguing that the paternity statute denies women equal protection and should be declared unconstitutional."
Facebook & Twitter IVF Fund - Interesting story. What are your thoughts?"The invitation went out by e-mail, Facebook and Twitter almost simultaneously to friends of San Francisco's Molly and Brian Walsh. Its title was tantalizing: "Makin' Whoopie." But its purpose was pure, as well as purely provocative."You can't help us in the bedroom, but you can help us make a baby," read the invitation to the party, which may have been a Bay Area first - a fundraiser to collect money for costly fertility procedures. With insurance companies reluctant to pay for the cost of in-vitro fertilization and few states with laws requiring insurers to do so, couples unable to pay for the procedure, which runs $12,000 on average, have few resources other than their own creativity.
Two low-profile national nonprofits, the International Council on Infertility Information Dissemination in Arlington, Va., and BUMPS (Bringing U Maternal and Parental Success) in South Florida, offer in-vitro fertilization services to couples without the money or insurance to pay, and who meet select criteria. Together, they assist fewer than 100 couples annually.
Despite their online know-how, the Walshes had not searched the Web for outsiders' help.
"It never occurred to me to reach out to them - I'd reach out to my own community first," said Molly Walsh, 38, head of business development at USA Hosts/Key Events. Her husband, Brian, 37, is the founder and chief executive of Castfire, a video publishing company. The couple, who met at a friend's house in 2006, are participants in Nevada's Burning Man festival and immersed in social networking, for business and pleasure.
Their decision to go public with a private matter was not easy. They feared backlash because the nature of their crisis was not life-threatening. Moreover, they had already saved $10,000, but were overwhelmed by the cost of the treatment - $25,000 to $30,000 in their case because they also need genetic testing of the fertilized embryos. Brian Walsh has Marfan's syndrome, a connective tissue disease, which they do not want to pass on to their offspring. There is also the race against the fertility clock."
Australia - Non-commercial surrogacy is no longer a crime in Queensland after a weeklong debate where sparks were flying over same sex and single parent surrogacy. Although they do not expect to see surrogacy occuring in great numbers, many are upset with the results. Unfortunately, many also think that any payments to surrogates under the table will be difficult to stop. One must note, however, that the surrogate is still entitled to not relinquish the baby. An important note for those thinking of this as an option there.
