Milena O'Hara

THE BASICS
Download this free ASRM Patient Education Booklet. Third Party Reproduction: Sperm, Egg, and Embryo Donation and Surrogacy
https://www.reproductivefacts.org/BOOKLET_Third-party_Reproduction/

The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) has ruled that children born to surrogate mothers abroad must be recognized as French citizens even though surrogacy is banned in France.

Two French couples who have children born to surrogates in the US over 10 years ago fought long and hard through the French legal system to get their children recognized as French citizens. Finally, their dreams came true when the Court ruled that denying such citizenship was “an infringement of the children’s right to respect for their private life” and “undermined the children’s identity within French society.”

Congratulations to the Menesson and Labassee families, as well as attorney Patrice Spinosi!

The UK government has issued a document providing its citizens with steps for returning home with their US-born babies born to a surrogate. Since paid surrogacy is illegal in the UK, many couples choose to come to the US for help. Recognizing this, the government has provided information on securing British citizenship for the child. Our UK clients have clear guidelines when they return home to live happily ever after.

Click here for the “Surrogacy Overseas” document.

When money isn’t an issue, global surrogacy also goes in the other direction.

Surrogacy is banned in China. So when Tony Jiang and his wife, who live in Shanghai, discovered they couldn’t have children on their own, they decided to look overseas, and ended up traveling to a surprising place for help.

“I already tried illegal underground surrogates in southern China, which turned out to be a total failure,” Jiang told America Tonight. “So that’s why afterwards I would try to explore international surrogacy industry. I checked with the surrogates from India, Ukraine, and Thailand. They had the solution in California.”

Three years and $275,000 later, Jiang and his wife now have three children: a daughter and a twin boy and girl, who were all born from the same surrogate. If they had been born in China, Jiang and his wife would be in violation of Chinese law. But the children were born in The Golden State; they’re all American citizens.

The government has already relaxed its one-child policy, permitting couples to have two children if at least one spouse is an only child, like both Jiang and his wife. But Chinese couples who have more than two children still face heavy penalties, so surrogacy is attracting the Chinese parents who can afford it to come to the U.S.

“It means that they’re getting their children with foreign passports,” said Jiang. “So they don’t bother registering that newborn as a Chinese citizen.”

Soon after his children were born, friends began asking Jiang for help. Before long, the young father was in the business of babies, setting up his own surrogacy agency, DiYi Consulting, which has helped nearly 100 couples since it began operating in 2012.

In addition to skirting China’s child restrictions, American surrogacy also opens a window for emigration. Upon turning 21, children born in the U.S. can apply for green cards for their parents.

Jiang pointed out another advantage in the American surrogate experience: gender selection.

Many Chinese seeking American surrogates request boys because male children are still culturally preferred. That’s possible in the U.S., where gender selection in technically straightforward through in vitro fertilization.

“It’s not commercially open or allowed in greater China region,” Jiang explained. “Especially for those couples already having a girl or a boy and they are doing further family building, gender selection will be very essential to them.”

Three of the nearly 100 Chinese couples Jiang’s agency has helped are gay, but he said infertility is what has motivated most of his clients to seek out surrogacy.

According to the Chinese Population Association, some 40 million Chinese citizens are infertile – about 12.5 percent of people of childbearing age. That number has quadrupled over the past 20 years.

But surrogacy in the U.S. is only available to those who can afford it. Jiang said a basic package, including one IVF cycle, costs between $120,000 and $170,000.

“I think 90 percent of my clients are private business owners,” Jiang said. “They have very high income. Also, maybe some middle class and above.”

Although there are no official statistics on the number of Chinese parents who come to the U.S. for surrogacy, agencies say it’s growing rapidly. All they have to do is point out the growing number of American surrogacy clinics and agencies that are hiring Mandarin speakers and developing websites in Chinese.

Going Global for a Family, Al Jazeera (May 12, 2014).

A judge struck down Arkansas’ ban on same-sex marriage, saying the state has “no rational reason” for preventing gay couples from marrying. The next day, Arkansas issued its first same-sex marriage license to Kristin Seaton and Jennifer Rambo.

First comes love ….