09 Oct 2020 One of World’s First ‘Test Tube Babies’ Becomes Dad via IVF… On His Birthday!

During this time of near-constant bad news, we at International Fertility Law Group

are excited and grateful to have a wonderful story to share, with the permission of our client to do so.

Our client recently became the proud father of a baby boy by in-vitro fertilization (IVF) and surrogacy. On August 13, 2020, this special baby was born on his dad’s birthday—the most incredible birthday gift any father could receive! 

But there’s more: our client, this new dad, was one of the first people in his home country to be born as a result of in-vitro fertilization.  Now, exactly 38 years later, he himself became a father through IVF and surrogacy.  It has to be one for the record books.

Giving Birth During COVID-19

This client was able to travel to the United States from his home country in Europe to be here when his amazing surrogate gave birth.  He was one of numerous intended parents our IFLG team of fertility lawyers and paralegals helped travel to the U.S. despite the COVID-19 travel ban in place at that time.

At our Skype staff meetings during the COVID-19 pandemic, our IFLG team has been sharing pictures of all the babies born to our clients; it helps remind all of us that, despite the craziness in the world, life goes on, in the most amazing and miraculous of ways. It reminds all of us why we do the work that we do every day.  It seems one or more of our clients are having new babies almost every day! We are blessed.

Creating Families with Assisted Reproductive Technology

IFLG practices exclusively in the area of fertility law, also known as assisted reproductive technology law and ART law. Rich founded IFLG following his own experience, with his spouse, of becoming a father of twin boys via IVF and surrogacy.

Molly, who joined IFLG as partner a year ago, worked with an egg donation and surrogacy agency beginning in 2005. She became familiar with all aspects of egg donation before becoming an attorney in 2011 to specialize in fertility law.

We, along with our stellar team of experienced, multi-lingual paralegals and fertility lawyers, have worked with thousands of intended parents, surrogates, and families from all over the world. This has allowed us to gain the experience and empathy that helps us advise and support our clients through every step of their family-creation journeys.

Establishing International Standards for Citizenship and Parentage of Surrogacy Babies

While scientists in Western European countries pioneered some of the earliest successes with assisted reproductive technologies such as IVF, in many places, societal acceptance lagged the science.

Through many years of practicing international surrogacy, we at IFLG know that in many locations, surrogacy remains illegal or is strictly limited to married or heterosexual intended parents. For that reason, many people who want to start families travel from their home countries to the United States, where many jurisdictions have strong laws governing medical practices and establishing the parentage of intended parents prior to birth.

During Rich’s tenure as chairman of the American Bar Association Assisted Reproductive Technology Committee, he and his colleagues worked for years with the Hague Conference on Private International Law (HCCH) to ensure that children born abroad via surrogacy have a right to citizenship in their parents’ home country and that their parents, and not a foreign surrogate, are established as legal parents. 

In February 2016, the ABA House of Delegates approved the committee’s resolution, stating that “any such international approach should allow for cross-border recognition of parentage judgments so that the parental relationship and citizenship status of all children, no matter the circumstance of their birth, will be certain….”

Just think, our client, the new dad, might never have been born had fertility doctors, scientists, and champions of reproductive freedom throughout the Western world not pushed the boundaries of human knowledge and societal acceptance to pioneer this life-affirming technology. We are so thankful they did, and we are pretty sure we know a new dad who is awfully grateful to them, as well. The work to ensure all babies born via surrogacy have a right to legal citizenship and secure parentage continues today.

If you have questions about creating a family with assisted reproductive technology or would like to talk with one of our fertility law experts, please call us today.