Posted on: October 23rd, 2014 by Simple Surrogacy No Comments
In another example of why it is important to have an Agency guide your surrogacy, we bring to light these sad cases where the Intended Parents were not well informed about the nature of the surrogacy laws in the state in which they were matched. Surrogacy laws are a patchwork across the country, ranging from strong, well founded laws in states like Texas and Nevada, to other states where the process is assumed, like California, all the way to states where you are at the mercy of a judge to determine parentage, like Arizona and Tennessee. An experienced Agency could have prevented the heartache here by explaining to the Parents exactly what their rights and limitations were in terms of the laws of the state where their baby would be born.
Article from USA Today
NASHVILLE — A week after giving birth, a Tennessee woman who agreed to be a surrogate for an Italian couple changed her mind. She wanted to keep the baby girl.
After years of legal wrangling, the state Supreme Court earlier this month ruled partially in her favor, sending the case back to a Nashville juvenile judge to decide on custody of the girl.
The girl is now 3, lives in Italy, speaks no English and has been raised since infancy by the Italian couple after the surrogate’s legal fight to keep her was dismissed by lower courts.
It’s a wrenching custody battle that surrogacy law experts say might have been avoided if Tennessee laws didn’t lag woefully behind new reproductive technologies, including the common use of surrogates by couples experiencing fertility problems.
Tennessee’s surrogacy law “lacks a clear process for persons to create, carry out, and enforce traditional surrogacy agreements,” the Supreme Court noted in its opinion. That “leaves parties to surrogacy contracts and courts ill-equipped to deal with the complex questions that inevitably arise in this area of law.”
The lack of legal guidelines has led to heartbreak.
“Certainly, it’s complicated to try at this point to establish a visitation schedule if you have a child who doesn’t speak English, has never met the surrogate but does have a biological mother whose rights have never been terminated,” said Benjamin Papa, an attorney for the Italian couple, whose identities — like the surrogate’s — remain confidential in the court’s order.
“The battle has been very hard,” Papa said. “They went through the whole surrogacy process in good faith. From their perspective, the surrogate decided she wasn’t going to live up to the bargain at the last minute. They have been very frustrated with her trying to back out of the deal everyone agreed to.”
The case is one of two recent court decisions illuminating a void in state laws guiding surrogacy contracts.
Tennessee’s lack of legal guidelines extends to gestational surrogacy, a more common surrogacy arrangement. Unlike the case of the Italian couple, gestational surrogacy involves implanting a fertilized egg into a surrogate that has no biological relationship with the woman pregnant with the baby.
In one Rutherford County case, the surrogacy arrangement went smoothly. There was no conflict between the surrogate and the intended parents. And then the Tennessee Department of Health intervened.
The surrogate was implanted with an anonymously donated egg fertilized by the intended father’s sperm. When the couple went to court to establish parentage, just before the birth of their child, state attorneys argued against them, saying that the surrogate must be listed as the child’s mother on the birth certificate. The court sided with state health officials.
Tennessee is one of four states that require an intended mother who uses an egg donor to wait until after the child’s birth to become the legal parent. The mother has to adopt the child — a practice that also affects the surrogate, who remains “on the hook as the legal parent until that adoption proceeding is completed,” said Diane Hinson, a Fellow of the American Association of Assisted Reproductive Attorneys.
Julia Tate, an attorney in the Rutherford County case, said she intends to appeal the ruling by the Court of Appeals.
“There are women using donated eggs every day in Tennessee,” Tate said. “All these surrogates — they don’t want to be named as the mother of the child. All the intended parents want to be named as the parents. We’re out of step with the nation. Our department of health is out of step with the nation.”
Because of Tennessee’s vague laws, Tate said, parents have been unable to add their child to their health insurance plans and obtain Social Security cards. Also, they bear the added legal expense of going through a “stepparent adoption” to legalize the mother’s relationship with the child.
“After all the indignities (parents) have been through to have this child,” said Tate, pointing to years of unsuccessful fertility treatments and the process of finding a surrogate, “they have to go through the final indignity of having to have a stepparent adoption for their child.”
Wadhwani also writes for The Tennessean in Nashville.
Posted on: October 17th, 2014 by Simple Surrogacy No Comments
As more women delay their childbearing, typically at their own expense, it is gratifying for companies to realize that offering advanced fertility options to their employees. So often in our business, we see women who have had high-powered careers wake up one day to realize that their fertile years have passed them by but that they still really want to be parents. It is encouraging to see companies help these women out and extend their productive careers while maintaining their fertility. Even if the women who are one day freezing their eggs end up needing surrogates to carry their pregnancies, we are encouraged to see that their fertility can be postponed by the foresight of these forward thinking companies.
Apple, Facebook to pay for women to freeze eggs
Brett Molina and Elizabeth Weise, USA TODAY 4:02 p.m. CDT October 14, 2014
Silicon Valley is known for offering incredible job perks, but the latest moves by Apple and Facebook could help the companies attract more female employees.
Facebook said it offers egg freezing for female employees up to $20,000. The company also offers adoption and surrogacy assistance and “a host of other fertility services for male and female employees,” the company said via e-mail.
Apple also offers egg freezing and storage, extended maternity leave, adoption assistance and infertility treatments.
In a statement, the company said “We want to empower women at Apple to do the best work of their lives as they care for loved ones and raise their families.”
The benefit is worth close to $20,000. A typical round of egg-freezing costs about $10,000, with $500 or more in fees each year for storage. Two rounds are usually necessary to harvest about 20 eggs, which is considered ideal.
The coverage by Apple and Facebook is part of a growing trend to beef up employee perks at Silicon Valley companies to recruit new hires.
However, the option won’t be one every woman will jump at, said Kellye Sheehan with Women in Technology, a professional organization for women in the tech industry.
“This is a nice perk but of course it’s a very personal decision for every working woman. When to time college, grad school, babies, starting a career, accelerating a career — all of these have huge ramifications in your life and that of your significant other,” she said.
“Is the employer trying to tell us something? Agreed, working mothers have a lot to juggle. But you can’t let your employer force you into something that doesn’t fit your values or personal choices,” Sheehan added.
The idea of freezing eggs for later use was first proposed for cancer patients. Chemotherapy damages a woman’s eggs, so removing and freezing eggs of female cancer patients gave them a chance at having children later on.
For what’s sometimes called “fertility preservation,” the idea is that by removing and fertilizing their eggs in their 20s, women will have a better chance of getting pregnant in their 30s and 40s.
Reproductively speaking, a woman’s best chance at a healthy pregnancy that results in a healthy baby is in her 20s.
This is because the viability of a woman’s eggs declines over time. Fertility gradually declines in the 30s and drastically beginning around age 35, according to the American Society of Reproductive Medicine.
The actual harvesting of the eggs is not trivial. It requires rounds of hormone injections to coax the body into producing multiple eggs at once. When the eggs mature, they are harvested via a needle inserted through the vagina.
Exactly how successful the woman will be at having a child if she froze her eggs in her 20s and then used them in her 30s or 40s isn’t yet known.
“We don’t yet have patients who’ve cryopreserved eggs in their 20s and are coming back in their 30s and 40s, because the technology is so new,” said Jennifer Eaton, medical director of assisted reproductive technology at Duke Fertility Center in Durham, N.C.
However centers that are using the new freezing techniques report “comparable pregnancy and live birth rates among women who freeze eggs and come back,” she said.
The technology used to freeze human eggs has become much better in the last 10 years and is much more likely to result in the birth of a child than in the past, said Alan Copperman, director of the division of reproductive endocrinology and infertility at The Mount Sinai Hospital in New York City.
“Five years ago, if you’d interviewed me, I would have talked about how much better a fresh egg is than a frozen egg. But in 2014, a frozen egg is almost as good as a fresh egg,” he said.
In the past, doctors used a slow freezing technique with eggs. However the egg is the largest cell in the human body and contains a great deal of water. During freezing, ice crystals sometimes form, which damage the spindle apparatus within cells that pulls chromosomes apart during cell division.
Today a quick-freeze process, called vitrification, is used that is less likely to create ice crystals and results in better-preserved eggs, Copperman said.
Egg freezing isn’t a guarantee that you’re going to have a healthy baby, but could increase the odds, said Marcelle Cedars, director of reproductive endocrinology and infertility at the University of California-San Francisco.
“I always tell my patients it’s not a baby in the freezer, it’s the possibility of a baby,” she said.
No matter how old a woman is when she decides to start a family, frozen eggs are the last resort.
“Even at 40, 50% of 40-year-olds who want to get pregnant get pregnant,” Cedars said. “And it’s a lot more fun to do it the old-fashioned way.”
Posted on: October 14th, 2014 by Simple Surrogacy No Comments
Deciding to be a surrogate mother or egg donor requires a great amount of thought, emotion, and energy. An egg donor essentially gives her biological egg and DNA. The surrogate mother who receives the transfer of a fertilized egg (in vitro fertilization) is the gestational carrier. This surrogate mothercommits to going through with the actual pregnancy for the intended parents, in doing so commits to a long process of testing, appointments and responsibility for the life she is carrying within her.
In most cases, the intended parents may not be able to conceive naturally or carry a child. Common reasons why intended parents may choose to undertake surrogacy as a means to create their family may be infertility, complications and risks for the intended mother’s health. Gay and lesbian parents who wish to raise a child are also welcome to join our program as intended parents. In fact, Gay and Lesbian parents make up at least 50% of our current surrogacy program. Today, surrogate mothers have the opportunity to choose the parents they would like to carry for, and we endeavor to match the surrogates in our program with the best possible match in their intended parent partners.
The role of a surrogate mother is vital for intended parents to being able to achieve parenthood. Surrogate mothers share a unique and special relationship with the intended parents during the surrogacy journey. For many, this relationship will continue after the surrogate baby is born. Beyond their superior reasons of creating a family for intended parents who are unable to do so. In addition to compensation for carrying and delivery, intended parents will pay all of the surrogate’s associated surrogacy expenses. Upon birth, or upon filling of post birth legal documents, the child rightfully belongs to the intended parents as agreed upon in their surrogacy agreement. The surrogacy agreement is carefully drafted before the transfer of embryos by reproductive rights attorneys, and reviewed by the intended parents and their attorney, and the surrogate and her attorney.
Those who are volunteering as a surrogate mother must be healthy and able to carry a child; they must pass screening tests along with medical and psychological evaluations before the process can begin. There are many legal, financial and medical steps that need to be taken, so proper research and discussion is recommended. A good first step is to set up a consultation with a reputable surrogacy agency, and have your questions addressed. The help from the appropriate surrogate agency, like Simple Surrogacy, will help to ensure a successful surrogacy journey and the ultimate birth of your child.
Posted on: October 8th, 2014 by Simple Surrogacy No Comments
As Great Strides are made in the United States toward equal marriage rights for all, it is saddening to see so many speak out in France against Same Sex surrogacy rights and marriage rights. Clients of ours from France, just returned home with their twin babies from the United States, born into our surrogacy program. How sad for them that they now have to witness this protest against the very lives they have just welcomed. As always, we welcome same sex couples, and every kind of person seeking to become a parent. We do hope France will reconsider.
Tens of thousands rally in France against IVF, surrogacy for same-sex families
Published time: October 05, 2014 16:36
Edited time: October 06, 2014 10:53
People wave flags and hold signs with messages as tens of thousands of demonstrators take part in the “Manif Pour Tous” (Demonstration For All) to protest against PMA (Procreation Medicalement Assistee or Medically Assisted Reproduction) and GPA (Grosesse pour Autrui or Gestation for Others) during a march in Paris October 5, 2014 (Reuters / Gonzalo Fuentes)
Over 500,000 opponents of same-sex marriage have flooded the streets of Paris and Bordeaux to protest against medically-assisted reproduction for gay couples, rally organizers said. A previous protest for “traditional family values” gathered 100,000.
Streets of Paris and Bordeaux have been smothered in pink, blue and white as scores of demonstrators have been waving flags of the “Manif pour Tous” (Protest for Everyone) group that organized the two rallies.
The group said that “at least 500,000 attended the demonstration” in Paris alone. This is five times higher than the previous rally for “family values” back in February.
In Bordeaux, at least 7,500 people attended the rally, police said. However, organizers estimated that no fewer than 30,000 activists came.
Manif pour Tous expected a higher turnout, as a petition calling for a mandatory ban on surrogacy by French citizens had been signed by 200,000 people by Sunday morning, four days after it was put online, according to local Libération newspaper.
Generally opposing same-sex relations, the group’s Sunday march was to protest surrogacy and medically-assisted reproduction (ART) for gay couples.
“Because the exploitation of women is intolerable; because the child is not an object; because all children need a father and a mother,” the group’s announcement said as it called for people to come out and support “traditional family values.”
The group said it has been out on the streets of France “for two years with the same message” and it “continues on October 5.”
The call has been supported by tens of thousands of people in both Paris and Bordeaux, where the rallies started an hour apart – at 1pm and 2pm respectively.
In Paris the demonstrators gathered at Porte Dauphine and marched to Montparnasse, which are about 7km apart.
The president of Manif pour Tous, Ludovine de la Rochere, said that “traditional family values” must be “fought for at all costs.”
According to an exclusive research by Ifop poll for the local Atlantico website, 31 percent of French people support the “values and ideas” of Manif pour Tous.
Speaking to Catholic daily La Croix on Friday, French Prime Minister Manuel Valls assured anti-LGBT supporters that surrogacy “is and will remain banned in France.”
In September, the highest French appeals court ruled that lesbian couples in France may adopt children born via assisted reproductive technology (ART).
But while homosexual couples in France are allowed to adopt, they are barred from using in vitro fertilization.
President Francois Hollande signed the controversial marriage bill into law in May last year, making France the 14th country in the world to allow gay marriage.
The legislation was opposed by many people in France, although opinion polls at the time showed that 55-60 percent of French people supported gay marriage.
People walk behind a banner as tens of thousands of demonstrators take part in the “Manif Pour Tous” (Demonstration For All) to protest against PMA (Procreation Medicalement Assistee or Medically Assisted Reproduction) and GPA (Grosesse pour Autrui or Gestation for Others) during a march in Paris October 5, 2014 (Reuters / Gonzalo Fuentes)
Posted on: September 25th, 2014 by Simple Surrogacy No Comments
Simple Surrogacy Announces Partnership with American HealthCare Lending for Fertility Financing
To ensure all soon-to-be parents are able to bridge the affordability gap on all fertility and reproductive treatments and the costs of the surrogacy process, Simple Surrogacy has partnered with American HealthCare Lending. Simple Surrogacy is thrilled to offer an affordable financing solution to help their patients obtain the family of their dreams.
Individuals can face many challenges throughout the fertility and reproductive medicine process; adding affordability to those same challenges can make the process of having children even more stressful. American HealthCare Lending VP of Marketing, Graham Anderson explains, “Our mission as a company is to make healthcare affordable. We entered this partnership with Simple Surrogacy to ensure that all of their patients have access to the industry leading service they provide.”
Patients will receive many benefits by using American HealthCare Lending, including, fertility financing of up to $100,000, longer term options for lower monthly payments, and a loan product that charges no retroactive interest or pre-payment penalties. In addition, patients can receive immediate decisions for loans under $35,000 coupled with a loan inquiry process that is quick, easy and can be completed from anywhere on any device.
Stephanie Scott from Simple Surrogacy said the following about the partnership, “Simple Surrogacy is highly regarded in the surrogacy community for helping clients achieve success at an affordable price. We have partnered with American HealthCare Lending to help more of our clients afford surrogacy.”
About Simple Surrogacy. Based in Dallas, Texas, Simple Surrogacy is a full-service Surrogacy Agency. They were founded in 2002 to assist couples and individuals with the desire to achieve a family through third party assisted reproduction. Simple Surrogacy was founded on one simple principle: to provide clients with the highest standard of care in the surrogacy industry at an affordable price. Creating families through Surrogacy and Egg Donation since 2002, Simple Surrogacy offers a fully rounded knowledge of the experience. Simple Surrogacy does not discriminate based on sexual preference, marital status, race, religion, age, or gender.
About American Healthcare Lending.Based in Salt Lake City, Utah, American Healthcare Lending is the premier fertility and reproductive medicine financing company in the nation. American HealthCare Lending has pioneered the Financing as a Service™ (FaaS™) model, and offers both patients and providers an easy-to-use online financing solution that can be accessed from the provider’s office, at home, or on any mobile device. As one of the true innovators in fertility financing, American HealthCare Lending’s revolutionary financing platform charges the patient no retroactive interest or pre-payment penalties, offers instant decisions, upfront funding, loan amounts up to $100,000, and a team of knowledgeable lending consultants to assist the patient and provider throughout the entire loan process.
Posted on: September 9th, 2014 by Simple Surrogacy No Comments
Simple Surrogacy and Simple Donations invite you to attend two seminars on surrogacy and egg donation for couples and singles who are interested in more information on becoming parents through surrogacy in the United States. Simple Surrogacy has had the privilege of helping many couples and singles from the UK become parents. We would love for you to attend and learn more and have all your questions answered.
Our seminars will be held on Saturday, September 20th from 6:30-8:30pm and again on Sunday, September 21st from Noon-2:00pm. Both events will be at the Strand Palace Hotel, 372 Strand, London. We will be serving a light dinner on Saturday and lunch on Sunday. The seminar is free and open to the public. We hope to see you there!
Posted on: August 18th, 2014 by Simple Surrogacy No Comments
We are so glad to have helped such a wonderful man create his family.
Two weeks into parenthood, Michael Barbaro made a list: “15 Things I’ve Learned About Being a Dad.” In it, he advises against purchasing baby clothes with snaps on them – “Where is the Velcro? Magnets? Duct tape?” – or even bothering with those tiny newborn socks.
“My Italian nose can press an elevator button, hold a bottle and balance coffee, while my toe can lift a car seat and fold laundry.”
If it sounds like Michael could use a few extra limbs, that’s because he could: The 45-year-old ordained minister in the UCC Church and associate chaplain at a private school in New York City recently became a single father to fraternal twin boys.
Michael makes no bones about needing a hand. Item two on his list, second only to “Plan for nothing,” reads: “Help does come when you need it. Accept it. Wash, rinse and repeat this mantra. It’s okay to accept help.”
Raised with a strong sense of his own spirituality, Michael struggled with his sexuality even as he entered seminary to become a minister. There, he began reparative therapy, which aims to cure homosexuality.
“You cannot be a gay and be a Christian,” his therapist told him one day, two years into his treatment.
“I remember sitting there and thinking, ‘I don’t know what I am. But I know what you just said is wrong,’” Michael says. He abruptly ended treatment. Even though he now believed his faith and sexuality could co-exist, Michael felt a deep sense of loss.
“One of the things that made it so hard for me to accept that I was gay was the thought that I would never be a father,” he said. Once he came out, he simply tried to let go of the dream of having kids.
That was 15 years ago. On Easter Sunday last year, though, Michael’s mother insisted he revisit the notion of becoming a parent. Financial concerns were paramount for Michael – surrogacy is dauntingly expensive and he knew adoption as a single gay man would also come with challenges.
“Nobody ever has enough money to have kids,” his mother said. “If you don’t do it, knowing you, when you are seventy, you will look back and have regrets.”
Michael knew she was right. He began investigating surrogacy in India and Thailand, but the tide for international surrogacy had turned against gay parents. He settled on the most affordable agency he could find in the United States.
The two embryos implanted for surrogacy were, according to Michael’s doctor, a boy and a girl. The hope was for at least one to make it, as there is about a 50% chance for an embryo to perish very early on.
But, secretly, Michael hoped for twins. “As a single parent, I was really open to the idea of having twins so that they would have each other.”
The first ultrasound confirmed there were two babies – a boy and a girl – and Michael began preparing, even choosing their names: Giabella and Giovanni.
“I made them videos and called them by name, I recorded books with their names and sent them to [the gestational carrier] to play to the womb, and I kept a journal for them throughout the pregnancy,” he wrote in the announcement letter to his friends. At baby showers, he received clothes and toys for a boy and a girl.
The girl was expected to arrive first. To the delivering OB/GYN’s surprise, though, a boy came out first. She explained they must have switched places somehow. Then another boy was born.
“Everyone started to cheer as they held the two boys together for me to see,” Michael says. “They weighed them, started to clean them and I just kept saying, ‘Wait are you sure? It’s two boys? Really? How is this possible?’ I kept staring at them, confused, and a bit in shock. It felt like everything went into slow motion as they swaddled and handed me two baby boys.”
Even as he met his two beautiful sons, Michael sobbed, feeling overwhelming grief for the loss of Giabella, the daughter he thought he would also be welcoming into the world.
Michael spent the next few nights in turmoil. Doctors had a number of possible explanations for the gender mix-up, some of which alarmed him: Had the clinic transferred the wrong embryos? Had a stray egg from the surrogate implanted?
To Michael’s great relief, DNA tests determined the genetic testing and ultrasounds had simply been wrong. “An emotionally brutal situation that left a lot to be explained, but all I cared about at that point was being their Dad,” Michael wrote. He named his boys Luciano (which means bringer of light) and Giovanni (gift from God).
Perhaps the numbers are flipped for Michael – one parent for two babies instead of the other way around – but he says his family is just like any other. All parents need help and all children need outside role models to thrive.
“No parent can do it all,” he says. Still, he’s asked about the boys’ mother at every new doctor’s visit or casual interactions out with the boys. Even supportive friends were flabbergasted that he’d consider twins. “I got more of a reaction about having twins than about being single or being a minister.”
For Michael, though, twins were the hope, if not the plan. He’s supported by a village of family and friends. His mom, sister, and best friend of 36 years and godmother to the twins help with daily care.
“Sometimes people really like to lead with their own anxiety about twins, but the truth is that I don’t really know any different right now,” Michael says. After all, he hasn’t experienced parenthood any other way.
“There are moments that I think, ‘Wow, how am I going to do this?’ and then I go back to, ‘Wow, I’m so lucky that I get to do this.’”
Posted on: July 29th, 2014 by Simple Surrogacy No Comments
We are saddened to see once again in the news, is a report of an agency, Planet Hospital, that either stole or mismanaged Intended Parent’s money and did not help them to achieve their dreams of parenthood. We are always so dissapointed when we hear the news of people who defraud Intended Parents and surrogates because this is such an emotional business where people truly put their hearts and love on the line to try and have a baby. We are deeply troubled by this case, as a reputable agency who has pushed for regulation in the industry, and we want to offer a discount of our Agency fees to anyone who was mislead by this company. Please contact us if you were harmed by this (or any other) surrogacy agency as we want to help you to achieve your dreams of family at the most reasonable cost, with a reputable, experienced, established agency.
To those who are looking for a surrogacy agency, it is important that you research the company well. Please research them, Google them. How long have they been in business? Do they have references to previous clients that you can speak to? If they can only give one or two names, that might be a red flag that they are either just starting out with no client history, (Avoid newly established agencies, as they are unproven) or that they do not have very satisfied clients. Does the Agency have a good reputation in the industry, not only with Clients, but also with Surrogates, and Attorneys and Psychologists? If asked, any reputable agency can provide you with professional references as well as previous client references. Make sure your agency has reliable, insured escrow services, as so many Agencies do not have a good reputation with handling Client funds, and this has been a source of fraud in the past.
Simple Surrogacy,LLC, Having been in business now more than 11 years, is well respected in the industry, and can provide many references to current and previous clients and surrogates, as well as to attorneys and psychologists. Our funds are bonded and insured for fraud and loss, and our escrow is closely guarded with only one person having check writing authority for your protection. When you research Agencies, be sure you ask as many questions you need to for assurance that you are hiring a company who will truly help you on your journey all the way to parenthood.
OUT OF POCKET Jonah Winn-Lenetsky, left, and Chris Pommier paid $22,500 for the first phase of their unfulfilled surrogacy contract with Planet Hospital. They have since found another agency. Credit Mark Holm for The New York Times
CANCÚN, Mexico — Rudy Rupak, the founder of Planet Hospital, a medical tourism company based in California, was never shy about self-promotion. Over the last decade he has held forth about how his company has helped Americans head overseas for affordable tummy tucks and hip replacements. And after he expanded his business to include surrogacy in India for Western couples grappling with infertility — and then in Thailand, and last year, Mexico — he increasingly took credit for the global spread of surrogacy.
But now Mr. Rupak is in involuntary bankruptcy proceedings, under investigation by the F.B.I. and being pursued by dozens of furious clients from around the world who accuse him of taking their money and dashing their dreams of starting a family.
Where it is permitted, as in parts of Mexico, businesses like Mr. Rupak’s — many reputable, some not — have flourished by serving as intermediaries connecting clients with egg donors, in vitro fertilization clinics and surrogates. Those able to pay more than $100,000 for services often turn to an American agency in a state where surrogacy is legal and fairly widely practiced. Those with less money often go to India or to Mexico through agencies like Planet Hospital that advertise heavily and charge less than half the American price.
Jonathan C. Dailey, a lawyer in Washington, wired Planet Hospital $37,000 in December 2013, the first installment on a contract for a single mother in Mexico to carry his child. He and his fiancée flew to Cancún to leave a sperm deposit at the clinic that would create the embryo and to visit the downtown house where their surrogate would live while pregnant. They picked a “premium” egg donor from the agency Planet Hospital sent them to. But nothing happened.
“It was just outright fraud,” said Mr. Dailey. “It’s like we paid money to buy a condo, they took the money, and there was no condo. But it’s worse, because it’s about having a baby.”
The emerging Planet Hospital story, which Mr. Rupak characterized as one of mismanagement rather than fraud, stands as a cautionary tale about the proliferation of unregulated surrogacy agencies, their lack of accountability and their ability to prey on vulnerable clients who want a baby so badly that they do not notice all the red flags.
Catherine Moscarello, who worked with Mr. Rupak and handled communications with clients, said the company was engaged in unsavory practices “from the moment I stepped aboard.”
“The object was to get money,” she added. “He would keep changing clinics, and whenever his relationship with a clinic in India or Thailand or Cancún broke off, he would disparage the clinic and the doctors there. But what was really happening was that he wasn’t paying his bills.”
She said Planet Hospital also engaged in unauthorized egg-splitting. In at least one case, Mr. Rupak admitted taking eggs harvested for one intended parent, and giving some to another to keep his costs down. Then, too, Ms. Moscarello said, Planet Hospital did not use proper care in choosing women to be surrogates. Ms. Moscarello, who was herself trying to have a baby through surrogacy, said she was paired with a woman who was only 18, had a 9-month-old child of her own and who had had uterine cysts removed the day before the embryo transfer. The surrogacy did not work.
Mr. Rupak had about 150 domain names on the Internet for his surrogacy business, with web advertisements for Christian surrogacy, gay and lesbian surrogacy, Mexican surrogacy, Indian surrogacy and more.
Earlier this year, he closed Planet Hospital. But this month, he popped back up, once again starting up the company website, offering kidney transplants, gastric bypass, tummy tucks, and other surgery — but not surrogacy.
“My interest is to stay in business and keep this thing going, even though I’m not making any income at the moment,” Mr. Rupak said.
Mr. Rupak said his lawyer had advised him to ignore the bankruptcy, but now he might fight it.
Even with Mr. Rupak out of the Cancún surrogacy business, the demand for affordable surrogacy and the potential profits are such that all the former main players in Planet Hospital — its vice president, the head of the egg-donor agency it worked with, the woman in charge of the Cancún surrogate housing, and Ms. Moscarello, the client representative — are starting their own surrogacy businesses in Mexico.
In fact, hundreds of new surrogacy businesses advertise their services on the Internet because anyone can establish an agency, regardless of background or expertise. Agencies are started and disappear, sometimes reappearing under a new name.
Some agencies have faced legal action, though.
In one case, Tonya A. Collins, the owner of SurroGenesis in California, was sentenced to five years in prison for fraud after taking millions of dollars of client money, supposedly placed in escrow for surrogacy costs.
In another, Theresa M. Erickson, a California surrogacy lawyer and owner of Conceptual Options, was convicted in a baby-selling ring. She was sentenced to five months in jail, nine months of home confinement and fined $70,000. The ring solicited women online to bear children for others and sent them to Ukraine to have embryos implanted — but there were no would-be parents. When the surrogates were more than four months pregnant, Ms. Erickson told them the fictitious parents had backed out, and sold the babies for more than $100,000 each.
“There are more scams and scandals in surrogacy now than I can ever recall seeing,” said Andrew W. Vorzimer, a surrogacy lawyer in Los Angeles. “But I think Planet Hospital is the biggest mess yet.”
‘Some Horrendous Mistakes’
Mr. Rupak, 45, who is Canadian and is also known as Rupak Acharya, started out as a software developer designing video games, then served as chief technology officer for American Apparel, before founding Planet Hospital in 2002.
He said Planet Hospital had a good track record at the start, when the company focused on orthopedics, plastic surgery, dental work and other relatively quick and predictable procedures. But he contended that he became overextended, and fell behind on his payments when he expanded into surrogacy.
Unlike basic surgical procedures, surrogacy is a complicated process with no guarantees that the surrogate will get pregnant, and not miscarry, or that the fetus will not have serious defects. And unlike most medical procedures, surrogacy is a lengthy process, with weeks when the egg donor and the woman who will carry the baby take hormones to synchronize their cycles, all followed by nine months of pregnancy.
In an interview, Mr. Rupak said he had good intentions, but “made some horrendous mistakes.”
“What happened is entirely 100 percent my fault, but it’s mismanagement rather than outright fraud,” Mr. Rupak said. “I am an entrepreneur, but I am notoriously, notoriously bad at contracts.”
Many of his clients take a darker view of what they say was a trail of lies, excuses and broken promises that left them heartbroken and out thousands of dollars — in some cases, their life savings.
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PURSUED BY CLIENTS Rudy Rupak, the founder of Planet Hospital, and Marisol Morales, coordinator of its Mexico surrogacy program. Credit Ted Rhodes/Calgary Herald
Former Planet Hospital clients seeking to have a baby through surrogacy in India and Mexico share similar stories of unpaid bills, switched clinics, reversed credit-card charges, pleas for more time and promises to make it up with free services.
Mr. Rupak started his surrogacy program in India, the country with the largest surrogacy industry, but moved to Thailand, and, last year, Mexico, after India closed its doors to gay couples seeking babies through surrogates, as well as singles and those married less than two years.
“By the time you realize how deep you’re in, you’ve lost all your money and you’re stuck,” said Rhyannon Morrigan, who, with her husband, signed an Indian surrogacy contract in October 2012. “They liked to do everything by phone, and put as little in writing as possible.”
In retrospect, she said, there were warning signs.
“Even at the start, when we sent the contract in and asked for a signed copy back, we never got one,” she said. “We got so tired of excuses and lies. By July 2013, I’d pretty much let go of the idea of getting my money back, but I didn’t want it to happen to anyone else.”
So she began posting her problems with Planet Hospital online, and soon her family began receiving online threats and slurs from Mr. Rupak.
Mr. Rupak has said that if people attacked him, he felt free to retaliate.
Warning Signs Overlooked
In Thailand, too, there were problems with Planet Hospital.
“We contacted Planet Hospital because we knew that India was closing to gay couples. Thailand is familiar to us, and we thought it would be good to have an American agency with a lot of experience with surrogacy,” said Jim Carrington, an Australian who paid $25,000 for a Thai surrogacy in March, 2013. “Looking back, I’m annoyed with myself that I didn’t pick up how they made lots of assurance, but they kept everything verbal, on the phone.”
And all their questions, including a request last fall for a refund, got evasive responses. “It was always, ‘I’m out of the country, I can’t get to a computer, I’m in Europe, I’m not sure what happened, I’ll look into it,’ ” Mr. Carrington said.
Mr. Carrington received a $5,000 refund from the clinic, and Mr. Rupak agreed to wire another $5,000. But, Mr. Rupak said, he decided that although they did not achieve a pregnancy, they received enough services that no further refund was warranted — and he canceled the wire.
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Jonathan C. Dailey, a lawyer in Washington, paid $37,000 to Planet Hospital to have a woman in Mexico carry his child. The company took his money, but then did nothing for him. Credit Gabriella Demczuk/The New York Times
Cancún’s white-sand beaches and party reputation have helped make it a hot spot for people, including many gay couples, looking to start a family through surrogacy. In one blog post announcing the Mexico program, Mr. Rupak wrote, “ ‘Cancún baby! Woohoo’ takes on a whole new meaning now, doesn’t it?”
But Cancún is not in the state of Tabasco, the only one in Mexico where surrogacy is legal. So women here who agree to be impregnated and carry babies to term have to fly about 450 miles to Tabasco to deliver their babies.
Ms. Moscarello, the former Planet Hospital client representative, said her new venture, IP Conceptions, would operate in Tabasco.
Planet Hospital worked with two clinics here, Fertility Center of Cancún and Irega. Both said their Planet Hospital experience left scars.
Jaime Elorriaga, a spokesman for the Fertility Center of Cancún, said that his clinic had ended its surrogacy program altogether.
“We’ve had problems with other companies that come to Mexico, too, but not as bad as Rudy,” he said. “They like to cut corners to save a few dollars, and that can turn into disaster.”
Tori Brown, the international patient coordinator at Irega, said, “We have tried to put the whole Planet Hospital nightmare behind us. We followed through with the clients we had, and we’re not going to discuss the situation anymore.”
One Santa Fe couple, Chris Pommier and Jonah Winn-Lenetsky, paid $22,500 for the first phase of their Planet Hospital contract, the largest chunk. The first-phase fees, typically $22,000 to $37,000, covered the surrogate recruitment, semen deposit, egg donor, in vitro fertilization and embryo transfer.
Phase Two, when a heartbeat was confirmed, was $13,000 to $22,000 and went mostly to pay the woman carrying the fetus and to pay for her housing. At Phase Three, the cost was $3,000 to $12,000 to cover delivery if the client got that far. The money was paid to Planet Hospital, which coordinated the process and served as a billing agent for the other clinics involved in the process.
“We had flown down to do our semen deposit and testing in July, and shortly after that we got an email that Planet Hospital had not paid the clinic fees” at Fertility Clinic of Cancún, Mr. Pommier said. “Planet Hospital and the clinic blamed everything on each other. At first the clinic told us they’d do whatever we wanted, but then they changed their tune when we wanted to transfer the semen, because they hadn’t been paid.”
In February, with complaints mounting and Planet Hospital’s reputation plummeting, Mr. Rupak made an offer to some of those who had lost money.
“I genuinely want to make all of you financially whole,” he said in a group email. “I do not want to live the rest of my life feeling that I hindered your dreams. This is not who I am.”
He proposed to pay them back — minus costs for services rendered — over the next 18 months, with an initial pool of just $10,000 to $15,000 to distribute.
“All I ask in exchange is that you refrain from disparaging me and my company publicly so that I have the ability to make an income and pay you back as aggressively as I possibly can.”
That same month, in an email complaining about the doctors he had worked with, and turning down a bid by a client for a refund, Mr. Rupak wrote, “Here is a little secret for all of you. There is a lot of treachery and deception in I.V.F./fertility/surrogacy because there is gobs of money to be made.”
Posted on: July 10th, 2014 by Simple Surrogacy No Comments
There is a beautiful picture trending on mainstream national media that says so much about the beautiful process of surrogacy, and especially the process that Gay Fathers go through to become Fathers. The raw emotions, the longing, the lengths they go to to be parents all speaks to the wholesome truth that they put all of their love into being exceptional parents. We at Simple Surrogacy often get to see and witness the raw emotion in the moment when a Father gets to see their child for the first time. We have seen how it can transform even the strongest man into an emotional mass of pure love for his son or daughter. How wonderful that an amazing photographer was able to witness this firsthand, and to capture the amazing real love that pours forth at such a moment. This is just an amazing photograph, and we are so happy that the world can now see the raw emotion and love that these Fathers feel, that our amazing surrogate mothers gift to them when they help them bring their children into the world. I hope every woman contemplating being a surrogate can see this picture, and see what gift it is that they give to each and every person they help to feel this very love. Congratulations to the Fathers shown here, and especially to the wonderful surrogate who enabled this beautiful moment.
‘Our pride baby’: Read what the dads have to say about the birth photo that went viral
Lisa Flam TODAY
July 8, 2014 at 11:47 AM ET
Lindsay Foster Photography
Just before a gestational surrogate gave birth to their son in Kingston, Ontario, a midwife screamed “shirts off” so new dads Frank Nelson and BJ Barone would be ready to hold their baby against their bare chests for skin-to-skin bonding.
Photographer Lindsay Foster was shooting the birth as a gift to her friend, Kathy Frenette, the couple’s surrogate. Foster caught the instant when baby Milo was held by his fathers for the first time, even before the umbilical cord had been cut.
In the photos, a shirtless Nelson, 44, holds Milo to his chest, and Barone, 34, has an arm around each of them, as the new dads shed tears of happiness.
“She absolutely captured the most beautiful moment,” Nelson told TODAY Parents in a phone interview Monday. “I was completely overwhelmed. I was so scared of dropping the baby. Mostly, the feeling was of joy and love and amazement.”
The raw emotion Foster captured, he said, “represents unconditional love to us and pure happiness.”
Barone added: “I was so excited, so overjoyed, so overcome with emotion, it was an incredible moment I will never forget. The fact we have this photo, it’s a reminder of how much love we have for him.”
Lindsay Foster Photography
“He’s definitely our pride baby,” dad Frank Nelson says of baby Milo, born during the world LGBT pride celebrations. “We’re so proud of him.”
(Why are the dads shirtless? Skin-to-skin contact has been shown to have many health benefits for newborns, from temperature regulation to pain management, so it’s standard practice at many births now.)
The couple took a few photos of Milo with a cellphone camera, and Nelson joked that they were happy with the 200 “likes” that one received on Facebook. But that was nothing compared to the response that two of Foster’s photos got when she posted them on Facebook, and they quickly went viral.
“The fact that she got that picture was amazing,” Nelson said. “We are so grateful to her.”
The couple are still in disbelief when they stare at the photos and see exactly how they looked.
“As soon as I saw it, I started crying because you can see such emotion on everyone’s face, especially Frank’s,” Barone said. “It instantly brought me to tears. I couldn’t believe it.”
The Toronto couple, married for nearly four years, say Milo has great timing. Their first attempt at having a child failed, and Milo, the son of two high school teachers, was born at the end of the school year. He arrived on June 27, during the World Pride gay rights festival in Toronto.
Lindsay Foster Photography
Before the umbilical cord was cut, new dads Frank Nelson and BJ Barone embraced their son, born to a surrogate in June. Photographer Lindsay Foster says, “Every pain that she had, they were crying along with her. I wanted to take a picture and hug them at the same time.”
“He’s definitely our pride baby,” Nelson said. “We’re so proud of him. That picture, to us, represents what pride is all about and how far the LGBT community has come. Love is love, and that’s what pride is all about.”
As the photos went around the Internet, the comments poured in. Some posted negative jabs, but most were positive. One man wrote that the photos “had opened his heart to acceptance, and that the love shown for a child has no boundaries,” Barone said.
“That brought me to tears,” he added. “We’re not trying to change the world. The fact that we’re able to bring awareness to people and hopefully inspire people, it’s quite a feeling.”
Their photo was shared by actor George Takei, an original “Star Trek” cast member turned gay rights advocate with a huge Facebook following, who wrote, “Congratulations, new fathers. These photos are a wonderful reminder that love is what makes a family.” Nelson said he was pleased that the photo had launched an online discussion about gay rights and what it takes to be a good parent.
“This can open the minds of people, and start a conversation, that all that a child needs is unconditional love, be it from a man or a woman or anything in between,” he said.
Frank Nelson
The two dads forgot their camera in the rush to the hospital for the birth of their son, but a professional photographer’s shot of their unforgettable first moments with the baby went viral.
For Foster, it was the first time she had photographed a surrogate birth. While she is used to the pregnant woman needing support during labor and delivery, this time, she felt there were three parents who needed a boost.
“Every pain that she had, they were crying along with her,” Foster said. “When she’d scream, they’d scream. I wanted to take a picture and hug them at the same time.”
She learned a month before the birth that the intended parents were a gay couple, which she said made it special because it’s so unusual.
“What made it even better was the emotion from them,” she said. “It was just absolutely amazing. I’m shocked that I have any pictures in focus, I was crying so hard with them.”
The couple are back home in Toronto, still staring at those first photos and enjoying the newborn days.
“Milo has been a great baby,” Nelson said. “He sleeps a lot, he poops a lot and he’s been very good for his Daddies.”
Lisa A. Flam is a news and lifestyles reporter in New York. Follow her on Twitter.
Posted on: July 1st, 2014 by Simple Surrogacy No Comments
As we posted just last week, an Evangelical Christian woman, Jennifer Lahl has released a slanted documentary disparaging all surrogates and donors as greedy, sub-human “breeders” in her misguided attempt to outlaw all surrogacy services. As Barbara Collura, executive director of RESOLVE, states in the below article, Lahl’s stance is another way around trying to outlaw Homosexual couples from being able to have a baby at all- which is admittedly another tenant of the Evangelical far right’s platform. Yet another person who decides that what others choose to do in a free society- that is to help people achieve their dreams of parenthood- should be outlawed because she disagrees with it from her far right stance. The documentary is horribly slanted, and one sided. Also below, an excerpt form another couple, who seek to use a gestational surrogate, and their reaction to the disparaging documentary.
Christian filmmaker sets out to criminalize surrogacy in U.S.
“Surrogacy sets out from the beginning, on purpose, to separate the child from the birth mother,” says critic of the practice.
By Matt Bradwell | June 25, 2014 at 3:28 PM |
PLEASENT HILL, Calif., June 25 (UPI) –Filmmaker Jennifer Lahl wants the United States to outlaw surrogacy, concerned it targets women and the poor, and fails to take into account the well being of children.Gestational surrogacy is when a woman carries a child that is not hers, conceived via in vitro fertilization and implanted into the host’s womb. It is most commonly used by women who are unable to carry their own child, partners of infertile men, and men in same-sex relationships.
Lahl’s new documentary, Breeders: A Sub-Class of Women, focuses on what she sees as a growing industry of lower-class women being exploited by wealthy couples.
“It’s obviously expensive technology and people with financial means want what they want,” Lahl said to ABC News.
The self-proclaimed evangelical Christian is also frustrated that the issue revolves solely around an adult’s wish to be a parent.
“It always strikes me that the children are so absent in the discussions. It’s all about adults – who wants, who needs, who buys and what I can get…Surrogacy sets out from the beginning, on purpose, to separate the child from the birth mother.”
“We now have the medical technology to allow people to have a genetically linked child even if the woman cannot carry a pregnancy,” counters Barbara Collura, executive director of RESOLVE: The National Infertility Association. “If there are women who want to be a gestational carrier and the legal framework exists to ensure the process is legal and ethical, why not let them be a surrogate?”
Collura went on to ask how Lahl expected homosexual men to have biological children if not for surrogate mothers, adding, “Banning gestational carrier surrogacy is a way of saying that certain people shouldn’t have children.”
“I am not sure that is what our country wants to tell people.”
Local Couple Weighs in on Proposal to Outlaw Surrogacy
Posted: Jun 26, 2014 2:49 PM CDT Updated: Jun 26, 2014 3:41 PM CDT
In her documentary, “Breeders: A Sub-Class of Women,” Jennifer Lahl argues that surrogacy is a baby-buying operation, allowing wealthy couples to exploit vulnerable women. This notion isn’t sitting well with parents who have used a surrogate mother to have a child.
Jenn Nixon and her husband Brad are trying to start a family. It’s been a seven-year struggle for the Chesterfield couple, but they’re getting closer to their dream.
“After 7 years of waiting, finally we will be parents,” Jenn said.
The Nixon’s chose to use a surrogate, or gestational carrier, after they learned Jenn’s heart problems would make it dangerous for her to get pregnant.
“This was what we wanted to do and so I just put it out there, told everyone. I blogged about it and was sharing it, that we found our surrogate,” Jenn explained.
Jenn’s blog gives a candid look at the couple’s efforts to become parents and their joy in finding someone to help them. Jenn disagrees with the recent claims that surrogacy is a “baby-buying operation” that exploits women.
“It isn’t fair to generalize and make it seem like every surrogacy situation is that way,” Jenn told 8News. “My experience and the people I know, they’re doing it because that’s the only way they can have a biological child and I think its a wonderful thing.”
It’s also an expensive process.
“We are budgeting it out and I’m estimating it’s going to cost $40,000 for us to do this,” Jenn said. “With my husband being a police officer and me on a small salary, this is going to be loans. But we’re gonna make it happen. We’re gonna make it happen.”
That $40,000 will cover just medical costs; the Nixon’s are not paying their gestational carrier. She’s helping the couple because she believes it’s the right thing to do. Instead of focusing on any negative feedback, Jenn and her husband will instead focus on starting their family.
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People wave flags and hold signs with messages as tens of thousands of demonstrators take part in the “Manif Pour Tous” (Demonstration For All) to protest against PMA (Procreation Medicalement Assistee or Medically Assisted Reproduction) and GPA (Grosesse pour Autrui or Gestation for Others) during a march in Paris October 5, 2014 (Reuters / Gonzalo Fuentes)
People walk behind a banner as tens of thousands of demonstrators take part in the “Manif Pour Tous” (Demonstration For All) to protest against PMA (Procreation Medicalement Assistee or Medically Assisted Reproduction) and GPA (Grosesse pour Autrui or Gestation for Others) during a march in Paris October 5, 2014 (Reuters / Gonzalo Fuentes)
