When Surrogates are Used for Mega Profit~Protecting Yourself from a "Next Time" Crime

In light of what has happened with the Theresa Erickson case and the alleged "baby selling ring" I feel compelled to write something. Yes it was all very shocking and others have written long and eloquent blog posts. You can read two of them here; first from The Stirrup Queen and then take a look at the Fertility Advocate. You can see from the comments that this is a super hot topic.

But what I want to focus on here, in my post, are the surrogates. I was a surrogate twice. How would I feel if I had inadvertently fallen for a scheme like this? Sick, worried, tainted, used....the list goes on. Then I might start questioning all of my instincts and wonder how my gift of helping intended parents ended up in a scam that allowed other people to make huge amounts of money...by selling the baby 'I' carried! A real felony where lawyers (and others) lose their licenses to practice and face time in prison.

How can we trust those out there matching women who want to be surrogates with Intended Parents now? Just between you and me...here are my thoughts from the heart.

First of all this crime is not the norm! It's like an airplane crash that hits the news and shocks the nation....this story is everywhere we turn but the reality is that this kind of plot is so rare that of course it will seem larger then life. The majority of professionals within the Third Party Family Building arena are honest, trustworthy, dedicated and ethical. I have been in this field for over a decade and have worked with a lot of attorneys, agency's, clinics and mental health professionals and never have I heard of a scheme like this happening in the USA.

Second, when you are looking to become a surrogate know the facts about the process. Don't rush in blindly! If you know what the average fee is then your radar will certainly go up once you hear of something that sounds too good to be true!
                                                     
- $38,000 to $45,000 base fee is too high for a first time surrogate. It would be unusual for a 2nd time surrogate as well.

-Not meeting your IP's before your transfer is very unusual. Or, in the case of international/out of state couples there are often phone calls and e-mails. A bond is formed that way and soon after the transfer you should expect to meet them in person. If you are uncomfortable then insist on a meeting before the transfer!

-Traveling to another country to become pregnant is not usually expected. If the embryos are not FDA approved (due to testing before freezing) then IP's will have to start over here with egg retrieval's and required testing.

-Asking a surrogate to stay out of the country until the second trimester is certainly a crazy notion especially when surrogates have their own families to take care of here at home.

-Not having a psychological evaluation is unheard of and should be insisted upon.

These are just a few of the red flags that the surrogates in this case should have been aware of. And I believe, in some cases, were ignored.

My final point is that we need to educate ourselves on the tried and true surrogacy guidelines and not sweep crimes like this 'Surrogacy Scandal'  under the rug but rather learn from it. We can ask educated questions of those we chose to work with, and continue to trust in our own judgment. Surrogacy is a beautiful gift. Lets not allow it to be tainted by a few bad apples.




Sharon LaMothe
Infertility Answers, Inc.
http://infertilityanswers.org/
LaMothe Services, LLC
http://lamotheservices.com/
LaMothe Surrogacy Consulting
http://lamothesurrogacyconsulting.com/

What questions are raised by globalizing surrogacy?

I just can't help myself. I find these articles and read in awe at how much the world has changed in the 10 years since I started swimming in the sea of surrogacy. Now, when speaking of surrogates and surrogacy the words "globalization" and "outsourced" are used. How about medical tourism as a term? The world is a much smaller place for sure when you are talking about frozen sperm being flown from one continent to the next and International surrogates being referred to as incubators in the 'market place'.

Sharon
www.InfertilityAnswers.net

What questions are raised by globalizing surrogacy?
Ellen Goodman, ellengoodman@globe.com
Saturday, April 12, 2008 (Please note that this is over a year old but still relevant today)



By now we all have a story about a job outsourced beyond our reach in the global economy. My own favorite is about the California publisher who hired two reporters in India to cover the Pasadena city government. Really.

There are times as well when the off-shoring of jobs takes on a quite literal meaning. When the labor we are talking about is, well, labor.

In the last few months, we've have had a full nursery of international stories about surrogate mothers. Hundreds of couples are crossing borders in search of lower-cost ways to fill the family business. In turn, there's a new coterie of international workers who are gestating for a living.

Many of the stories about the globalization of baby production begin in India, where the government seems to regard this as, literally, a growth industry. In the little town of Anand, dubbed "The Cradle of the World," 45 women were recently on the books of a local clinic. For the production and delivery of a child, they will earn $5,000 to $7,000, a decade's worth of women's wages in rural India.

But even in America, some women, including Army wives, are supplementing their income by contracting out their wombs. They have become surrogate mothers for wealthy couples from European countries that ban the practice.

This globalization of baby-making comes at the peculiar intersection of a high reproductive technology and a low-tech work force. The biotech business was created in the same petri dish as Baby Louise, the first IVF baby. But, since then, we've seen conception outsourced to egg donors and sperm donors. We've had motherhood divided into its parts from genetic mother to gestational mother to birth mother and now contract mother.

We've also seen the growth of an international economy. Frozen sperm is flown from one continent to another. And patients have become medical tourists, searching for cheaper health care, whether it's a new hip in Thailand or an IVF treatment in South Africa that comes with a photo safari thrown in for the same price. Why not, then, rent a foreign womb?

I don't make light of infertility. The primal desire to have a child underlies this multinational Creation Inc. On one side, couples who choose surrogacy want a baby with at least half their own genes. On the other side, surrogate mothers, who are rarely implanted with their own eggs any longer, can believe that the child they bear and deliver is not really theirs.

As one woman put it, "We give them a baby and they give us much-needed money. It's good for them and for us." A surrogate in Anand used the money to buy a heart operation for her son. Another raised a dowry for her daughter. And before we talk about the exploitation of the pregnant woman, consider her alternative in Anand: a job crushing glass in a factory for $25 a month.

Nevertheless, there is - and there should be - something uncomfortable about a free-market approach to baby-making. It's easier to accept surrogacy when it's a gift from one woman to another. But we rarely see a rich woman become a surrogate for a poor family. Indeed, in Third World countries, some women sign these contracts with a fingerprint because they are illiterate.

For that matter, we have not yet had stories about the contract workers for whom pregnancy was a dangerous occupation, but we will. What obligation does a family that simply contracted for a child have to its birth mother? What control do - should - contractors have over their "employees' " lives while incubating "their" children? What will we tell the offspring of this international trade?

"National boundaries are coming down," says bioethicist Lori Andrews, "but we can't stop human emotions. We are expanding families and don't even have terms to deal with it."

It's the commercialism that is troubling. Some things we cannot sell, no matter how good the deal. We cannot, for example, sell ourselves into slavery. We cannot sell our children. But the surrogacy business comes perilously close to both of these deals. And international surrogacy tips the scales.

So these borders we are crossing are not just geographic ones. They are ethical ones. Today the global economy sends everyone in search of the cheaper deal, as if that were the single common good. But, in the biological search, humanity is sacrificed to the economy, and the person becomes the product. And, step by step, we come to a stunning place in our ancient creation story. It's called the market place.

Ellen Goodman is a columnist for The Boston Globe. Her column is distributed by the Washington Post Writers Group. Her e-mail address is ellengoodman@globe.com.