Australian Surrogacy Laws

Recent news out of Australia is evidence of two important trends: first, that the number of children born through surrogacy is increasing significantly, and second, that Australia, like many other countries, is struggling to find ways for its legal system to keep up with fertility technology.

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Kansas Sperm Donor Trapped by DIY Insemination Loophole

Most state statutes governing sperm donation do not require the state to assess the intent of the donor and recpipients: if the donor qualifies as a parent or potential support obligor under state law, the state can go after him.

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Jewish Faith Supports Gay & Lesbian Families; Michigan Law Does Not

Both ‘traditional surrogacy,’ in which one woman provides the egg and carries the child, and ‘gestational surrogacy,’ in which one woman provides the egg and, after it is fertilized, another woman carries the child, are illegal for all people in Michigan, gay or straight.

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California Surrogacy Law Takes Effect Jan. 1

The new law provides guidance relating to the manner in which surrogacy agreements must be executed, when medical procedures can be commenced, and where parental establishment cases may be filed--many procedures already utilized by experienced assisted reproduction practitioners but not required by law.

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Illinois Public Health Department Policy Change Ensures Equal Protection for ALL Intended Parents

The Illinois Department of Public Health recently reversed its discriminatory policy and instructed that names of both same-sex intended parents be entered on birth certificates in gestational surrogacy cases, following the intent of the Illinois Gestational Surrogacy Act enacted in 2005.

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Tasmania Becomes Final Australian State to Legalize Surrogacy

The island state of Tasmania recently became the last remaining Australian state to legalize altruistic (unpaid) surrogacy. Under the new law, the surrogate must be at least 25 years old and have been pregnant before. Gay and lesbian couples as well as heterosexual couples may become parents via surrogacy.

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Election Results Confirm Changing Attitudes Reflected in Del Shores Play

Tommy and I were so honored, with our two boys, to be featured in a new one-act play by Del Shores, The Assembly Line, a benefit for Family Equality Council. I thought about the play's wedding scene as I stayed up late watching the 2012 election results.

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The American Bar Association Conference Update

Rich Vaughn with Carole A. Bass and Steven Weissman were panelists at the annual Continuing Legal Education Conference of the American Bar Association in Philadelphia on Oct. 12, speaking on “What Every Assisted Reproduction Lawyer Needs to know about Estate Planning.”

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Texas Surrogacy Case Highlights Need for Legal Agreement

Since there appears to have been neither a written gestational agreement nor court preapproval in this tragic Texas case, the parentage of the child may be determined under Texas laws predating the state's adoption of the gestational surrogacy standards set forth in the Uniform Parentage Act.

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Utah’s ‘Normal’ Narrowly Defined

As demonstrated by the state legislature’s commendable move to protect all parties in surrogacy arrangements by passing AB 1217, California non-traditional families are lucky. In contrast, in Salt Lake City, Utah, The New Normal, a new TV sitcom about a gay male couple who are becoming dads via surrogacy, is not even being allowed to air.

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California Acts to Protect Surrogates, Families

An assisted reproduction agreement for gestational carriers (surrogates), containing required information and legally notarized, would have to be executed prior to embryo transplantation or administration of medications used in assisted reproduction; in other words, it would be illegal to execute a surrogacy agreement with the intended parents after the surrogacy was already pregnant, as has occurred in a recent court case.

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Surrogacy to Help Gay Men Become Parents

The number of gay couples forming families is on a steady rise from previous years. Gay and lesbian couples around the world are finding new hope creating families using ART methods.

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