The article below details how Spanish Couples are needing to go abroad to find surrogates, and that is accurate. At Simple Surrogacy, we have a partnership with a Spanish Speaking Madrid Attorney who can assist Spanish Couples with their surrogacy process by reviewing their legal contracts with them locally in their native language. Our costs are MUCH lower than the high end proposed in the article of $277,000, most clients processed through our program net out at an average of $110,000 for a twin pregnancy! Call Simple Surrogacy today to see how we can assist you in creating your family.

Barcelona, May 2 (IANS/EFE) Every year, around 800 Spanish couples who see surrogacy as their only reproductive option must go abroad because Spain does not permit the practice, experts said here at a conference organised by law firm Subrogalia.

Only a few countries have any legislation regulating surrogacy and establishing that legal paternity resides with the couple who hire the surrogate, specialists in the field told EFE Thursday.

Spanish couples pay anywhere from 50,000 to 200,000 euros ($70,000-$277,000) for the process.

The top surrogacy destination for Spanish couples is Ukraine, where some clinics offer unlimited implantation procedures for a fixed fee, but Mexico is becoming more popular, as Ukrainian law bars surrogacy clinics from serving single people and gay or lesbian couples.

“Four years ago, the United States was the top destination and represented around 80 percent of all Spanish couples,” Diego Sanchez, president of Subrogalia, said, adding that the proportion has since fallen to 15 percent.

“If we could go to a closer country to hire surrogate mothers, then we would,” he said.

While Britain, Greece and Cyprus permit surrogacy, the practice is limited to residents and the prospective parents may not pay the surrogate, the attorney said.

Adoption is difficult in Spain, Sanchez said, noting that “more than 15,000 couples are officially registered on the waiting list to adopt 80-100 children a year.”

Indian Surrogacy is fraught with risks, tales of horrible surrogacies gone wrong, pregnancies ending for no reason, and now, their Ministry of Health has issues a stance opposing all surrogacies for foreigners. How powerful their opinion is remains to be seen, but likely their position would result in far fewer people taking the unnecessary risk of an Indian Surrogacy.

Ending discrimination in surrogacy laws

http://www.thehindu.com/opinion/op-ed/ending-discrimination-in-surrogacy-laws/article5970609.ece?homepage=true

An Interesting trend is rising in the Surrogacy world, and that is “Social Surrogacy.” Though not legal in texas under the Statutes, many other states make no distinction between a woman using a Surrogate because of infertile issues, and one using a surrogate because she is unwilling to pause her career or lifestyle to carry a baby to term.

Simple Surrogacy has lately been approached by several Chinese firms to partner with us to bring their Chinese clients to the United States for Surrogacy. When the recent story below was published on NPR.org, it came a little surprise to us that many other Surrogacy Agencies are having the same experience. We have had previous clients who had babies in the year of the Dragon, and have current clients who are expecting Horse babies. We have also experienced the phenomenon of those same clients preferring tall, blond Caucasian donors, and several have gone through our sister agency, Simple Donations, to find their ideal donor. We look forward to helping many more Chinese clients to have their babies in America through Surrogacy in the years to come.

After failed attempts with Chinese surrogates, Tony Jiang and his wife now have three children, thanks to an American surrogate.

Aly Song/Reuters/Landov

Chinese couples who are unable to have children are turning to a surprising place for help these days: America. By hiring American surrogates, Chinese couples get around a ban on surrogacy in China, as well as the country’s birth limits.

It also guarantees their children something many wealthy Chinese want these days: a U.S. passport.

Tony Jiang and his wife, Cherry, live in Shanghai and couldn’t have children naturally. First, they turned to underground hospitals in China for surrogacy.

It didn’t go well.

Jiang says one of the surrogates ran away.

“It was almost Chinese New Year’s break. She became so homesick so she flew back home,” he says. “My wife was just two or three days away from embryo transfer. That was really ridiculous and disappointing.”

So Jiang went online and found a surrogacy agency in Orange County, Calif. Three years and $275,000 later, Tony and Cherry have a son and two girls, which would have been against the law had they all been born in China.

He now consults with eight surrogacy agencies, connecting them with Chinese clients, the vast majority of whom suffer from infertility, Jiang says. Others clients have included gay men and heterosexual couples barred from having a second child in China.

Jiang’s first clients were a couple — both Communist Party members — who were leaders at a government-owned firm.

“How could leaders violate this kind of regulation?” he says. “You could be easily laid off if somebody knows you already have two kids.”

The wife had nearly died giving birth to their first son. The couple did have a second child through surrogacy, who — because he was born overseas — did not violate Chinese law.

Still, they’re very cautious about appearances.

“Only their closest friends, relatives, know they have two boys. All their colleagues, leaders, bosses don’t know,” Jiang says.

Advantages Of American Surrogacy

Chinese women routinely fly to the US to give birth, so their children can get an American passport and enjoy the benefits that come with it, including clean air and a U.S. education. Birth tourism is so common it provided the plot for a popular movie last year, Finding Mr. Right.

Amy Kaplan is the director of a Surrogacy Agency, an agency that helped and now works with Tony Jiang. She says Chinese surrogacy took off in recent years through word of mouth. Her agency saw its first Chinese client in 2009. Now, an estimated 47 percent of clients waiting for a surrogate are from mainland China, she says.

There are no hard numbers on Chinese surrogacies, but Kaplan figures in California alone there are perhaps several hundred right now.

She says her firm only works with clients who can show a medical need for surrogacy, and not those who just want a passport for their kid. But she says perfectly healthy couples have forged medical records to try to meet the requirements.

“The surrogates are putting their own health at risk for another person,” she says. “And for immigration reasons, to me, that’s …. not ethical.”

Frank Langfitt/NPR

For a Shanghai businessman, who gave his English name as Mark, there are other reasons for seeking out a surrogate.

“I know my dream, to have a baby,” he says. “For my status, to have a baby is not easy.”

What he means by “status” is that he’s gay, which is still considered fairly taboo in China. So he went to America to quietly start a family. Last year, he had a daughter, Yifan.

“When I hold her, look at her, my heart was expanding,” he says. “She looks exactly like my mirror image.”

Mark, who is 34, chose the U.S. because it gave Yifan a clear, legal identity, including an American passport, which she can use to attend school there in the future.

Like many Chinese his age, Mark is disappointed with China’s education system.

“For Chinese school, you are not allowed to have a free talk. So you just sit there quietly, just passively receiving knowledge,” he says. “But in the U.S., it’s different. Be more innovative, creative and free spirit.”

When Yifan reaches high school, Mark plans to move to America and educate her there.

East Meets West, Clashes Sometimes

Chinese parents often have specific concerns and novel demands of their American surrogates.

At first, Tony Jiang did: “I remember very clear how panicked I was in the first 12 weeks.”

When his surrogate, a woman in Northern California named Amanda Krywokulsky, was carrying his first daughter, Jiang worried about radiation.

Krywokulsky remembers: “Once the pregnancy was confirmed, they had asked about me wearing a lead apron when I used the microwave, which I thought was kind of weird.”

Jiang says some couples apply the principles of traditional Chinese medicine to pregnancy and childbirth, which clash with American behavior.

“I saw my surrogate when delivering; she was chewing ice,” he remembers. “So that’s quite weird. Most of my clients don’t understand or don’t suggest their surrogates to drink icy water during pregnancy because they believe these cold things they drink or eat could arouse miscarriage.”

Some of Jiang’s clients even tried to have lifestyle provisions written into the surrogacy contracts: Don’t eat seafood, don’t drink ice water, limit activities in at least the first four weeks.

“They say: I will pay your four months’ salary if you can [stay on] bed rest four weeks,” Jiang says. “People raise these kinds of ridiculous provisions, but finally they understand the situation, and they let it go.”

Jennifer Garcia, a surrogacy case coordinator with Extraordinary Conceptions in Carlsbad, Calif., says some Chinese clients don’t just want American surrogates — they also want American eggs.

“They all say the same thing: tall, blond, blue-eyed and pretty,” Garcia says.

She says they see an egg from a tall woman as a way to genetically trade up for stature.

“In Asian culture, they are a bit shorter; they just want really tall children and strong boys,” Garcia says. “And they’re thinking the Caucasian girl is stronger and taller, therefore they’ll have stronger, taller children.”

Garcia and others in the field expect Chinese demand for American surrogates to continue to grow, even with .

There was a rush to conceive children earlier this year — the Year of the Horse — which, according to the Chinese zodiac, is especially auspicious for boys.

Frank Langfitt is NPR’s Shanghai correspondent. You can follow him @franklangfitt.

This series continued the Surrogacy 101 series on our blog.

It is a fact that the full karyotyping of a single day 3 blastomere will not completely exclude the possibility of aneuploidy in the other blastomeres of that embryo. Aneuploidy can sometimes arise sporadically during regular cell division (i.e mitosis) as a consequence of abnormal chromosome dispersion. Thus it is possible even in cases where full karyotyping (CGH) reveals the tested single blastomere to be euploid that one or more of the untested blastomeres might be aneuploid. This so called mitotic aneuploidy is referred to as mosaicism. Conversely, the finding through CGH that a single blastomere is aneuploid, does not inevitably mean that all the entire embryo is aneuploid since the aneuploidy affecting the randomly selected single could (albeit rare) have resulted from mitotic (rather than meiotic) aneuploidy. So, a single mitotically aneuploid cell might in fact be a “loner” with the remaining cells being euploid.

Mosaicism commonly arises in blastocysts and in further advanced healthy concepti. In such cases it affects a small percentage of the total number of cells and the aneuploidy usually proves to be harmless. Perhaps such mitotically aneuploid cells (“overwhelmed” by the majority of its euploid neighbor cells) undergo accelerated death (apoptosis) and are so kept in check. In contrast, when mitotic aneuploidy occurs in early embryos (e.g. by day 3) the percentage of aneuploid cells in the later embryo is likely to be so high as to render ultimate embryo viability unlikely.

What is true and indeed relevant is that the detection of a single euploid single cell in the 3 day embryo provides valuable and irrefutable evidence that:

· The egg of origin was euploid

· The fertilizing sperm was euploid and,

· Fertilization took place in an orderly fashion.

Against this background, it is important to understand that the diagnosis of “embryo competency based upon single cell (blastomere) full karyotyping (i.e. by CGH) is a presumptive diagnosis that is likely to be accurate in about 80% of cases. Furthermore, even if the embryo is fully euploid throughout uterine receptivity and technical prowess in performing the embryo transfer, can preclude a successful pregnancy. That is why, based on available limited (albeit growing) data, we currently project a 60-70% viable pregnancy rate when ≤ 2 CGH normal embryos are transferred to a “presumably receptive” uterus. Time will undoubtedly refine and modify these statistical projections.

In summary: PGD/FISH for gender selection and for the diagnosis of translocations is of indisputable relevance. However, the performance of PGD/FISH for the diagnosis of embryo aneuploidy has little if any value in selecting the” best embryos” for transfer. Full embryo karyotyping (by CGH) is optimally suited to the selection of the most “competent” concepti for transfer. The following indications should be considered in deciding upon PGD/CGH for embryo selection:

1. Cases where there are >5, 6-9 cell day 3 embryos (derived from egg providers <39Y) available. Here the decision as to which one should be transferred is pivotal.

2. In cases of unexplained repeated IVF failure where it is necessary for diagnostic purposes to differentiate between an implantation versus an embryo factor

3. In selected cases of unexplained recurrent pregnancy loss ; to differentiate between an implantation versus an embryo factor

4. In certain cases of male factor infertility when trying to decide whether to proceed to DS. In such cases it is sometimes necessary to perform both PB-1 and blastomere CGH

5. To stockpile euploid, “competent” embryos over time in older women undergoing IVF

6. For egg donation at a distance where the recipient prefers to limit the time away from home. Here St-IVF will per permit fertilization of donor eggs while she waits for the results

7. Cases where expensive treatments such as IVIG, and or surgical/medical treatments in preparation for pregnancy could be deferred until “competent euploid embryos have been safely cryo banked for subsequent dispensation

Great news for potential parents and Surrogates in Louisiana, the Surrogacy bill has passed the House, which is the first step in making it into law. Next it will head to the Senate. The large margin in favor of the bill is encouraging that it will continue to pass the Senate and become law.

________

At-a-Glance: The Louisiana House of Representatives passed a bill 79-14 to establish enforceable, legal surrogacy birth contracts between married couples and the women who carry their children in Louisiana.

The bill: Rep. Joe Lopinto, R-Metairie, has sponsored the legislation which puts regulations in place for a couple and woman who enter into a surrogacy birth relationship. Surrogacy allows a couple to have a child that is biologically their own, but carried to term by a third party.

Currently, no one who sets up a contract governing a surrogacy in Louisiana can get it enforced in local courts. Lopinto’s bill would only allow surrogacy contracts between a married couple of opposite sexes and a woman between the age of 24 and 35 years old who has given birth previously. Other arrangements would be illegal.

The debate: Lopinto initially introduced a bill that was far more permissive of surrogacy arrangements, but he amended the legislation to reflect concerns of the conservative Christian community.

If enacted, the proposal would allow a fairly narrow range of surrogacy contracts to be legally enforced. It would also prohibit a couple from financially compensating a woman carrying their child outside of associated medical bills, unless she is unable to work because of the pregnancy.

Last year, the Louisiana Legislature overwhelmingly passed legislation to permit surrogacy contracts more broadly, but Gov. Bobby Jindal vetoed it after conservative Christians and the Catholic Church voiced their objections. Lopinto hopes his bill the governor will feel more comfortable signing his more restrictive legislation into law.

The Louisiana Conference of Catholic Bishops has continued to object to any legislation that  permits surrogacy, including Lopinto’s currently bill. But the organization acknowledged that Lopinto’s current proposal is better than the one the legislator originally introduced.

The vote: The House of Representatives passed the bill 79-14. 

Next step: Heads to the Senate.

Bottom line: Lopinto has crafted legislation that he hopes will assuage Jindal’s concerns about surrogacy and allow the proposal to bypass a veto.

Read more: A more detailed explanation of the ways in which Lopinto has altered his legislation can be found in this story about a House committee vote on the measure.

We are eagerly awaiting to find out if our neighbors to the east will be able to have similar legal protections for surrogacy that we enjoy in texas. I hope they will be able to create their families in Louisana very soon!

Compromise surrogacy bill advances in La. House

March 25

By MELINDA DESLATTE

Associated Press

http://www.kansascity.com/2014/03/25/4915138/compromise-surrogacy-bill-advances.html

We are so happy that British Gay Couples can finally marry and in celebration of those who are able to join together legally, we’re offering a British Couples Discount for the next Month! If you are a British couple, gay or straight, interested in pursuing surrogacy in the United States, we’d love to have you as a client and we’re waiving our International fee ($2,000 value) just for you!

Just contact us in April and mention the discount mentioned on our blog to receive your fee reduction. We are so happy for each one of you lucky couples finally able to legally tie the knot, and we’d love to help you expand your family as well!

Gay couples say ‘I do’ in England and Wales

Gay couples to marry in UK

London (CNN) — Andrew Wale is a writer and actor. His partner, Neil Allard, is a guesthouse owner. Together, they helped make history.

After the clock struck midnight on Friday, the couple were among the first men marrying men and women marrying women in a range of ceremonies across England and Wales as a historic law legalizing same-sex marriage finally comes into force.

Wale and Allard have long known they wanted to commit officially and have waited five years for gay and lesbian couples to be able exchange vows legally in their home country.

That day has finally come.

“When we were born, it was illegal to be gay, let alone get married,” Wale, 49, said during last-minute preparations ahead of the wedding. “I didn’t think about the possibility for most of my life. It is only really recently that suddenly the option seemed to be on its way.”

Wearing velvet-collared three-piece suits with white flowers in their buttonholes, the smiling couple of seven years hugged and kissed after they became “husband and husband”.

The marriage law was the final victory in a long battle that has secured the same age of consent as heterosexuals and the right to adopt. England and Wales are among 15 countries as well as parts of the United States and Mexico that allow same-sex marriage. The Netherlands was the first in 2001, and last year Brazil, Uruguay, New Zealand and France also joined the list.

The opulent splendor of the Royal Pavilion in the English city of Brighton provided the backdrop to Wale’s and Allard’s marriage. Theirs was the first same-sex wedding in a city that celebrates gay pride every year and is proud of its history of inclusion.

As the winners of a competition by the local council to find the right couple for the historic occasion, they exchanged vows shortly after midnight beneath the nine lotus-shaped chandeliers hung from the gilded cockleshell domed ceiling of the music room, where King George IV’s guests were once entertained with Handel or Italian opera.

‘They are equal’

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Lesbian couple: We were told to find men

Going through final details with the wedding’s organizers earlier this week, Wale and Allard said they were excited beyond measure.

Both had agreed civil partnership did not feel like full equality and decided to wait for marriage. But there was no sign that this would be possible until recently.

The same-sex marriage bill was published by Britain’s coalition government in January last year. In July, the legislation was approved to allow same-sex couples to officially marry in England and Wales.

Prime Minister David Cameron faced vocal opposition from some members of his Conservative Party. The Church of England also objected, and was given an exemption from conducting same-sex ceremonies.

But in a shift in tone ahead of the weddings, Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby, leader of the world’s 80 million Anglicans, signaled the Church of England would mount no more resistance to gay marriage among churchgoers as Parliament had spoken.

“I think the church has reacted by fully accepting that it’s the law, and should react on Saturday by continuing to demonstrate in word and action, the love of Christ for every human being,” he told the Guardian newspaper.

In an article on Pink News, an online magazine that focuses on the gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered community, Cameron said this weekend marked “an important moment for our country.”

“It says we are a country that will continue to honor its proud traditions of respect, tolerance and equal worth,” he wrote. “It also sends a powerful message to young people growing up who are uncertain about their sexuality. It clearly says ‘you are equal’ whether straight or gay.”

A rainbow flag flew above government offices in London in celebration.

Battles remain

Scotland, which will hold a referendum on independence from Britain in September, last month became the latest to give the green light to gay marriage. The fourth British link, Northern Ireland, has stated it does not intend to introduce same-sex marriage legislation.

Gay couples in Britain have spent years campaigning for gay rights. Civil partnerships were introduced in England and Wales in 2005, effectively giving gay couples the same legal rights as heterosexuals.

But campaigners insisted that only full equality would do. Unlike France, where legalizing same-sex marriage prompted fierce opposition from many social conservatives and the Catholic Church, there were no mass protests in Britain.

But for all the joy the weddings will bring, discrimination and bigotry remain issues in Britain.

In January, a local councilor was suspended from the anti-immigration UK Independence Party (UKIP) after blaming devastating floods on the legalization of gay marriage.

“We never really hold hands in the street, we’re quite careful about those kind of things — simply because it was always quite a dangerous thing to do. It’s still not entirely safe. Our friends were beaten up six months ago for holding hands in the street,” Wale said.

“Now I am feeling slightly more relaxed about that kind of thing. I feel I have rights to be affectionate with this person that I am going to marry — otherwise what does it represent?”

A recent Yougov poll in Britain showed that most people support the new change in law allowing same-sex couples to marry, but a third still think gay people are treated worse than straight people.

Making a statement

For Wale and Allard, the Royal Pavilion is where they met when they first started dating, so it was a fitting venue for the next step in their relationship.

They put much thought into personalizing the ceremony, which was attended by friends from as far away as New York, and there was a cellist and songs sung by friends.

The media also attended — as with many of the first other same-sex weddings on Saturday. The attention has been so huge that the local council has even received requests from ordinary Britons from across the country asking to attend Wale’s and Allard’s ceremony.

For the couple, exchanging vows is not just about making a statement to each other, but to the world.

“I think it’s important to make those kind of statements, be visible, be proud of who you are and what you are in a world which seems to be stepping backwards in lots of different places,” Wale said. “There are gay people struggling to be allowed to form relationships.”

Many couples getting married say they hope to send out messages of support to other gays facing discriminatory laws in their own countries. Last month, Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni signed into law a bill that toughens penalties against gay people and defines some homosexual acts as crimes punishable by life in prison. In Russia, a “propaganda” law bans even discussion of homosexuality anywhere that children might hear it.

“There are a lot of countries where it is illegal. We can show other countries that we are stepping forward,” Allard, 48, said, adding he felt lucky and privileged.

Instead of gifts, the couple asked their guests to make a donation to Stonewall — a charity that campaigns for equality and justice for lesbians, gay men and bisexuals.

“I want the wedding day to be a fully celebratory experience but at the same time, I don’t want to forget that it’s a relative freedom,” Wale said. “We haven’t reached the end of the line. There is still a long way to go.”

Sadly, there are people in the world that prey on those with infertility problems. They promise to be their surrogates, offer them discounts, and then steal their money. yet another sad case has come to light in Pennsylvania where a woman posed as a surrogate to defraud an Intended Parent couple. It is very sad that people would do this. An Agency with an excellent reputation can help to avoid this kind of heartbreak and loss of money that will most likely never be gotten back. Simple Surrogacy thoroughly screens all Surrogate candidates, and can assure that your surrogate will be upstanding and eager to help you create a family for all the right reasons. be careful if you choose to undergo surrogacy without a trusted Agency partner, as you never know if the promises of someone on the other end of the computer are true.

http://www.abc27.com/story/25055853/woman-arrested-in-surrogacy-contract-fraud

Everyone in the Surrogacy world, Simple Surrogacy in particular, was so excited to see Gay couples and singles about to be considered equal in the eye of the surrogacy laws in Israel. Now, it seems that the law is far from guaranteed, and has been quashed or at leasts postponed by Minister Ariel. We still hold out hope for the Gays and Singles in Israel that they might be considered equal and be able to undergo surrogacy without going overseas.

The homosexual community in Israel was outraged on Friday after discovering that Housing Minister Uri Ariel (Jewish Home) had appealed against a law that would allow same-sex couples to undergo the surrogacy process in Israel instead of having to do so abroad.

The bill, which was authored by Health Minister Yael German (Yesh Atid), narrowly passed the Ministerial Committee for Legislation with the approval of seven ministers from Yesh Atid, the Likud and Hatnua. Five ministers from the Jewish Home and Yisrael Beytenu voted against it.

The bill would have gone on to the Cabinet for approval, but is now likely to be quashed due to Ariel’s appeal.

In response to Ariel’s appeal, the homosexual community vented its frustration, but television host, writer and producer Gal Uchovsky took things a bit far.

“Uri Ariel, on behalf of me, my family and on behalf of all homosexuals in Israel: Damn you. May you go to hell and have trouble. I hope that no trace is left of you and your entire family. Curse you and your memory,” Uchovsky said, according to Channel 2 News.

Assi Azar, co-host of the Israeli version of the “Big Brother” reality program, sent a letter of protest to Jewish Home chairman Naftali Bennett.

“Mr. Ariel’s ugly act deeply hurt people, whose only desire is to establish a home in Israel, have children, raise a family…all I have left to say to you and to your friends in the party today is shame on you!” wrote Azar.

“You had a golden opportunity to be a true leader, to change, but you chose to be a coward and sent Ariel to pull a dirty trick,” he added.

Minister German, who initiated the law, said earlier Friday that she had felt as though “a knife was stuck in my back and heart when I heard about the appeal filed by Uri Ariel.”

German emphasized that before submitting the law to committee, she sat long hours with members of the Jewish Home party, “to locate the painful issues for them, to smooth over, to remove and add. It was clear they would vote against it, but it was also obvious after the adjustments we made that no appeal would be submitted.”

The issue of gay marriages and rights has been a point of contention between Jewish Home and Yesh Atid, two parties which disagree on a host of issues but which formed a pact after last year’s election to join the coalition together.

MK Adi Kol of Yesh Atid has been trying to legislate civil marriage in Israel. She also initiated a bill to give same-sex couples equal tax breaks, a bill which Jewish Home initially opposed but eventually compromised on by not having the bill give same-sex couples official recognition, thereby sparing Jewish Home from being perceived as officially supporting gay marriage.

Jewish Home, as well as Likud Beytenu, drew criticism for failing to vote against the bill, which passed; Bennett voted for the bill while the rest of Jewish Home abstained.

(Arutz Sheva’s North American Desk is keeping you updated until the start of Shabbat in New York. The time posted automatically on all Arutz Sheva articles, however, is Israeli time.)