GLBT Parents

ART in the News

Cheap IVF, medical tourism, and more

• “Women: Have your babies yesterday.”
   
  
• Looking for cheap IVF? 13 questions and answers about medical tourism. And just how expensive is IVF anyway?
   
  
• Biologists describe how an embryo attaches to the womb.
   
  
• The Bronx is the place to be for gay families.
   
  
• Feminism or folly? Women who conceive accidentally on purpose.
   
  
• Mothers may not tell after donor egg, sperm birth.
   
  
• Having a half-sibling on the other side of Europe.
   
  
• Men without children. 

posted by Cheryl Miller | 1:37 pm
File As: Assisted Reproductive Technologies, In Vitro Fertilization, Egg Donation, GLBT Parents, Single Mothers by Choice, Sperm Donation, Third-Party Reproduction

ART in the News

Clay Aiken: Gay Dad, Teen Pregnancy Barbie, and More

• Pregnancy on the rise, abortion rates lowest in 30 years.
   
  
• How to stay sane with multiples.
   
  
• Designing the $100,000 baby.
   
  
• Remote control male birth control.
   
  
• Clay Aiken has a gayby.
   
  
• Israeli women are coming to the U.S. to donate eggs.
   
  
• "I've become more conservative since carrying a baby to term, but not so conservative as to assume that a ball of cells is a person."
   
  
• Teen pregnancy Barbie.
   
  
• India's global surrogacy business: "Come as Couple ... Leave as Family."

posted by Cheryl Miller | 8:12 am
File As: Assisted Reproductive Technologies, In Vitro Fertilization, Surrogacy, ART in popular culture, Egg Donation, Frozen Embryos, GLBT Parents, Reproductive Law, Third-Party Reproduction

ART in the News

Gaybies, Afterdeath Children, the 66 Club, and more

• Is Sarah Palin a “moral snob?” Gene Expression looks at Down syndrome and abortion rates. The New York Times reports on the birth of Trig Palin. More from the Washington Post.
   
• David Frum: Are designer babies the solution to the inequality problem?
   
• The 66 Club: Some women belong to book clubs. These women all share the same sperm donor.
   
• Should parents tell a donor child about his origins? 
    
• Matthew Miller’s Maybe Baby is now out. An interview with the author.
   
• Are natural fertility methods better than IVF? 
   
• “Babies are cute. Who could blame you for wanting one? And nothing can stop you. Not even time.”
   
• The newest Hollywood accesory: the gaybie. 
   
• Dead men reproducing and afterdeath children. 

posted by Cheryl Miller | 8:37 am
File As: Assisted Reproductive Technologies, In Vitro Fertilization, Eugenics, Contemporary, GLBT Parents, Third-Party Reproduction

Two Articles of Note

Single men are hearing their biological clock ticking. And they’re not waiting for Mrs. (or Mr.) Right:

Daniel E. Gurr, a doctor in Miami, had always wanted a baby. The yearning lasted through his 30s and early 40s, through medical school and into his residency. That longing created tension; he and his longtime boyfriend, he said, fought each time the subject came up.

At 46, Dr. Gurr, who is settled in his job but now unattached, is finally fulfilling his wish. Next month, through a surrogate, he will become the single parent of a baby boy.

“I’ve always felt that I wanted fatherhood to be a part of my life,” he said. “It’s just a core part of who I’ve always been. I absolutely would want a partner, but I couldn’t let my life wait for that random event.”

In other news, parents of disabled children look to Sarah Palin as an advocate:

Many in the disability community said they hoped Trig Palin’s appearance at the convention would lead to greater public acceptance of his condition. “Why shouldn’t she have him there? There’s nothing to hide,” said Connie Hutzel of Mason, Ohio, whose son Carson, 11 years old, has Down syndrome.

 

posted by Cheryl Miller | 8:18 am
File As: Assisted Reproductive Technologies, Eugenics, Contemporary, Surrogacy, GLBT Parents

The Challenge of Using a Known Donor

Still more on the plight of donor-conceived people. First, from the Walrus, a fascinating piece on “frontier families” by a “dumped” sperm donor. Matthew Hayes, a gay man living in Canada, gives an inside look at the life of known donors:

Suzy, one of my closest and oldest friends, was phoning from her Toronto home. “Matt, I don’t really know how to say this to you. But we’ve decided to go in another direction. I don’t feel like this is working out.”

It was a few sentences that were both simple and entirely complex. But the essence of it was easy enough to summarize: I was being dumped as a sperm donor.

[...] I was hardly alone. In fact, I was caught in the gears of the various new machinations emerging from the burgeoning number of queer families, and one particular decision faced by many lesbians aspiring to parenthood. They have the means, but they still need sperm to get the job done. There are two options at this fork in the road: do they go the anonymous sperm donor route, or do they harvest the sperm of a close friend (usually gay)? We might call it the plan A (anonymous donor) or plan B (close gay friend) conundrum.

Second, from Choice Moms, Mikki Morrisette talks with a potential sperm donor and a reproductive law attorney about the pros and cons of using a known donor.  

posted by Cheryl Miller | 3:30 pm
File As: Assisted Reproductive Technologies, GLBT Parents, Sperm Donation, Third-Party Reproduction

Still More on 30 Years of IVF (And Britain's Donor Shortage)

The London Telegraph has a series of articles on ART today, including a number of first-hand accounts from patients and donors. There are some great stories, but since I'm working on a piece about donor registries, I was most interested in the ones about the effect of the anonymity ban on donor recruitment. 

The answer is not good — as this U.K. government report recently attested.

Sophie Turner and her partner Karen Harvey have spent two years trying to conceive a child. After learning about the waiting list for sperm donors, the couple turned to a Danish cryobank. The trips did not result in a baby, so the couple returned to the U.K. where they are still waiting for a donor:

After two failed attempts, she's being treated at Barts, where there's a three-month waiting list for British sperm. Any child we have will be able to contact the sperm donor when he or she is 18; I think it's a good thing that children know where they come from, but I'm not sure of the effect it will have on us as a family.

Sue Adlam is a school teacher. She waited a year for an egg donor to conceive her first child, and is now searching for another donor to conceive a sibling:

I feel as if I've spent half my life waiting, but as anyone who's ever suffered from infertility knows, what keeps you going through all the sadness is the prospect of the amazing miracle of a baby at the end of it all. Many women are faced with the prospect of a wait of at least two years, but my hope is that things will begin to improve in the long term.

posted by Cheryl Miller | 2:41 pm
File As: Assisted Reproductive Technologies, In Vitro Fertilization, Egg Donation, GLBT Parents, Sperm Donation, Third-Party Reproduction

ART in the News

Is sex necessary? Soldiers going to Iraq bank their sperm. And more...

• Is sex necessary?
   
• We need a 21st-century Solomon.
   
• A church contest for free fertility treatments.
   
• Should sex education teach about infertility?
   
• Enough about older mothers! What about the dangers of older fathers?
   
• Soldiers going to Iraq are banking their sperm.
   
• Sex selection: family balancing or a step toward designer babies? A new test can determine a baby's sex as early as the second month of pregnancy.
   
• A surrogate offers to help a couple conceive a savior sibling.
   
• California court to hear lesbian insemination case.
   
• Is IVF pushing up the cost of insurance in New Jersey?
   
• Woman carries ectopic pregnancy to term.
   
• Clay Aiken: Sperm donor.
   
• Art Garfunkle, a father again at 64, through a surrogate.

posted by Cheryl Miller | 2:22 pm
File As: In Vitro Fertilization, Surrogacy, ART in popular culture, GLBT Parents, Older Mothers/Fathers, Sex Selection

Must-Read Posts

I'm still recovering from the long holiday weekend, hence the non-existent posting of the last few days. Fortunately, other bloggers were not so lazy. Here are a few must-read posts:

• Jesse Reynolds takes a critical eye to Gordon Brown's stem cell research letter: "Like so many writings advocating cloning-based stem cell research (i.e., somatic cell nuclear transfer), Brown's op-ed drifts to distortion and hyperbole."
   
• Will Saletan considers Britain's new ART law by the numbers.
   
• Jennifer Roback Morse looks at how GLBT families and same-sex marriage could redefine the family.
   
• GLBT parents discuss family structure and the role of biology: "There is a desire to understand one’s biology. . . . It’s not right to dismiss those feelings and deny your child their biology.”
   
• Science Progress explains why GINA matters.

posted by Cheryl Miller | 10:51 am
File As: Bioethics and Medicine, Stem Cell Research, Assisted Reproductive Technologies, In Vitro Fertilization, GLBT Parents

ART in the News: Weekend Round-Up Edition

"Frankenstein Science," Quadruplets, A Gene for Infertility, and More

• For years, sperm banks have focused solely on sperm donors and the women they get pregnant—not the offspring they produce. That's about to change.
  
• Who's more likely to be treated: a premature infant, or an older patient with a lower chance of survival?
  
• "Frankenstein Science": Has Britain lost its way?
  
• "The hardest decision is knowing when to stop treatment. You always think, 'What if the next one works?'"
  
• Do all women have the right to become mothers?
  
• An unusual set of quadruplets: A Nigerian woman gives birth to identical twins and fraternal twins.
  
• "You can walk in and say your sister got pregnant and everyone else will say 'Oh my God, we hate her too.'"
  
• Germany decries Britain's new ART law.
  
• A gene for infertility?
  
• More repro-lit: The pregnant man writes a memoir. A new play about how people become parents.
  
• Charlie Sheen and Denise Richards feud over "sperm donation" email.
  
• Natural remedies for infertility? Acupuncture gains popularity.
  
• The "next big advance in IVF": DNA fingerprinting.
  
• Babies born preterm are more than twice as likely to have major birth defects as full-term infants.

posted by Cheryl Miller | 9:46 am
File As: Bioethics and Medicine, Stem Cell Research, Assisted Reproductive Technologies, In Vitro Fertilization, Embryo, Moral Status of the, Cloning, ART in popular culture, GLBT Parents, Sperm Donation, Third-Party Reproduction

ART in the News: International Edition

Infertility Awareness Week, the HFEA, and more

• It's infertility awareness week in Canada. More Canadians are looking to the U.S. for egg donors.
   
• One in five Irish couples experience infertility.
   
• In the U.K.: A good summary of the debate over the HFEA. Do embryos need fathers? Despite a recent defeat, the abortion debate is heating up. Is Britain "one step closer to designer babies?" How about cybrids?
   
• Gordon Brown defends embryo research: a "moral endeavor" that can save the "lives of millions."
   
• Simon Jenkins: "MPs should stop meddling in how people choose to plan and protect their families. They have enough trouble with their own."
   
• South Korea bans cross-species cloning. Disgraced stem cell researcher Hwang Woo-Suk will clone dogs for cash.

posted by Cheryl Miller | 3:30 pm
File As: Bioethics and Medicine, Stem Cell Research, Assisted Reproductive Technologies, In Vitro Fertilization, Embryo, Moral Status of the, Cloning, Egg Donation, GLBT Parents, Third-Party Reproduction

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