Local clinic to host surrogacy seminar

By Devon Lash
STAFF WRITER, Stamford Advocate

Posted: 03/14/2009 10:02:58 PM EDT
Updated: 03/15/2009 01:00:05 AM EDT

STAMFORD—Barely two decades old, gestational surrogacy is increasingly gaining a foothold in the world of reproductive medicine despite a history of legal battles, exorbitant fees and societal taboos.

“People are understanding exactly what it is and are more open to it,” said Dr. Gad Lavy, the founder and medical director at the New England Fertility Institute in Stamford. “A lot of the anxiety people have is because they don’t know the real story.”

Same-sex couples and women who cannot carry a pregnancy are embracing this third-party reproduction, which uses in vitro fertilization to implant an embryo into a surrogate who can carry and deliver the baby safely for its biological parents or parent.

The Organization of Parents Through Surrogacy estimated there were close to 1,000 births through surrogacy last year and 27,000 in the last three decades.

Yet because no specific records exist for surrogate births, and intense privacy is the norm, other organizations or individuals put the number closer to 300 or 500 births last year.

In an attempt to distinguish fact from fiction, the New England Fertility Institute will present a seminar on gestational surrogacy from 6 to 8 p.m. Thursday at the Crowne Plaza Hotel in White Plains, N.Y.

A panel of experienced speakers—Melissa Brisman, a leading voice in reproductive law; Judith Kottick, a counselor and consultant in reproductive medicine; a couple who became parents through gestational surrogacy; a woman who has acted as a surrogate; and Lavy—will take questions on the various medical, legal, financial and emotional aspects of surrogacy.

The New England Fertility Institute performs more than 40 surrogacy cycles, or implantation attempts, each year, Lavy said, and has a 60 to 70 percent success rate implanting a healthy embryo in a surrogate carrier.

“There are a lot of people interested in surrogacy, but they need more information,” said Marion Welch, the institute’s medical coordinator. “You can’t get that feeling over the Internet; it’s best achieved through personal interaction.”

Dorothy Greenfield, the director of psychological services at Yale Fertility Center in New Haven, said she counsels about 100 patients involved in third-party reproduction each year.

The most common fear from parents interested in surrogacy stems from the 1986 case when the surrogate and biological mother, Mary Beth Whitehead, tried to retain custody of the child, Baby M, Greenfield said.

Yet, the advent of in vitro fertilization and gestational surrogacy removes the biological link from the surrogate and the parents, she said.

“Lots of programs are reluctant to do traditional surrogacy. Though medically it’s less complicated, it’s much more complicated legally and psychologically,” she said.

Lavy said the New England Fertility Institute does not perform traditional surrogacy because of the legal and emotional complications.

Dr. Lawrence Engmann, an assistant professor and physician at the University of Connecticut’s Center for Advanced Reproductive Services, said for the same reasons, traditional surrogacy is not performed at UConn’s center, which oversaw about 10 gestational surrogacy cycles last year.

Shirley Zager, the director for the Organization of Parents Through Surrogacy, had her daughter through a traditional surrogate in the 1980s because in vitro technology was still emerging. Zager, who also runs a matching service for surrogates and hopeful parents outside of Chicago, called Parenting Partners, said she finds more woman are interested in gestational surrogacy — she has worked with 52 gestational surrogates and seven traditional.

Even without the genetic link for gestational surrogates, the legal atmosphere is complicated by the variance in each state’s court rulings and legislative decisions, said Brisman, who has been practicing reproductive law for 10 years after she had twin boys through a surrogate carrier and navigated through the murky legal process in multiple states.

Connecticut was considered a lenient state, but that label has shifted slightly in the last six months, she said.

The state Appellate Court is in the process of considering an appeal by a same-sex couple seeking to define the requirements for parentage on a child’s birth certificate. After the Public Department of Health contested the gay couple’s right to declare themselves parents on the birth certificate, a lower court ruled that because one partner did not contribute to the child’s conception, he would have to go through the adoptive process.

Unlike New York, however, Connecticut still allows the biological parent or parents to pay the surrogate for their services.

The cost of this and other services involved in gestational surrogacy, such as state legalities, can vary.

As of 2005, Connecticut mandates insurance companies cover a limited amount of certain infertility treatments and procedures for women up to 40 years old.

Still, Brisman puts the number from $10,000 to $80,000, depending on whether the surrogate is a relative and the extent of insurance coverage.

Zager said the minimum costs will start at about $30,000, even with an unpaid surrogate, because of expensive fertility medication, cycle costs, screening and legal fees. The average payment for the paid carrier is about $25,000, depending on the state, she said.
—Staff Writer Devon Lash can be reached at devon.lash@scni.com
or 964-2242.

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