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Surrogate mother seeks compensation
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Federal law unfair, woman says
Surrogate mother seeks compensation
A Saskatoon woman who carried a baby for a Toronto family says year-old
federal legislation preventing surrogate carriers from getting paid
isn't fair.
Since the Assisted Human Reproduction Act became law in March 2004,
egg and sperm donors and women who carry others' babies can't be
paid.
"I don't think it's right," said Cherish Lee, 31. "These
couples want this baby, and this is the way for them to have a baby,
and realistically speaking, if somebody's going to carry a baby
for them, they will need some time off of work. I don't think it's
wrong for a couple to say, 'You were making $2,000 a month, and
you're going to need to take two months off, so here you go.' "
While carrying a baby for the Toronto couple, Lee was entitled
to receiptable expenses such as maternity clothes, vitamins, medical
costs and flights paid for by the parents. But federal law prevented
the parents from compensating Lee, a mother of three, for time off
work.
Although it wasn't popular in Saskatchewan before, she said the
result is fewer women are now willing to be a surrogate carrier
or donate their eggs.
"Whether (lawmakers are) doing it for the right reasons or
the wrong reasons isn't my say, but they've made it really difficult,"
she said. "They've just put a damper on it."
Last month, the medical director of a Victoria fertility clinic
said the number of sperm and egg donors was rapidly declining and
infertile couples are often turned away to the United States.
Before the new assisted reproduction law, women were paid between
$1,000 and $3,000 per egg and men between $35 and $75 for a sperm
donation.
The situation in B.C. echoes the trend across the country, says
Dr. Roger Pierson, director of communications for The Canadian Fertility
and Andrology Society.
Since the 2004 legislation became law, sperm and egg donations
have "almost come to a complete stop," Pierson said.
The intent of the law, Pierson said, is to stop human life from
becoming a commodity to be bought or sold.
"In (the lawmakers') eyes, if you were paid money to perform
the service, you were providing not only commodification, but you
were potentially discriminating for poor people who need money to
sell their bodies, in essence to facilitate the creation of life,"
Pierson said. "That, for them, was an ethical dilemma they
have not been able to get over."
The law was intended to create an altruistic system where people
who donated eggs, sperm or womb time would do it out of the goodness
of their hearts.
"In the reality of clinical medicine in 2005, they have made
a statement that discriminates heavily against people who are infertile,
and that's very unfortunate," he said.
The penalty for paying for eggs, sperm or surrogacy can be a fine
in the hundreds of thousands of dollars, jail time and a criminal
record.
"They've criminalized acts of what many people might consider
compassion," Pierson said.
Lee said she worries women aren't volunteering to be surrogate
carriers because they've seen only negative media coverage of cases
where mothers became attached to their babies and entered messy
legal fights to obtain custody of them.
"People don't seem to see that it can go well," she said.
"I think if someone is healthy, and I think if they go into
it knowing what they're doing from the get-go, they know that's
not their baby . . . you can do something really wonderful."
Lee volunteered to be a surrogate carrier after watching family
friends struggle to conceive. Ten months after they had their son,
the boy's father died.
Lee and her family became good friends with the family whose son
she gave birth to, and they frequently exchange phone calls, emails
and pictures of the boy, now 1 1/2.
Dr. Allison Case, medical director of the Assisted Reproductive
Technology program at the University of Saskatchewan (ARTUS), said
an infertile couple using a gestational carrier is often a last
resort. ARTUS, which is Saskatchewan's main clinic for fertility
procedures, sees just one or two families a year who are interested,
she said.
"It's pretty unusual that there's an indication for it, like
(the) uterus has been removed or a medical reason why a woman can't
carry a pregnancy," she said. "It's definitely the least
common infertility treatment. But it is an option."
It's an "involved process" requiring a contract signed
by both parties, adoption papers and pre-pregnancy counselling to
ensure both parties have a good support system in place, she said.
If there's any suggestion the surrogate carrier is being coerced
or feels attached to the baby, they won't do the procedure, Case
said.
Still, Lee said she's ready to do it again, and may one day carry
a little brother or sister for the boy she gave birth to.
"I think there's so many people that could do it and would
feel really rewarded and feel really great about themselves for
doing it," Lee said. "I can't really describe how wonderful
it felt to see them with their baby, and just to know now that he's
healthy and he's happy, and they're happy, is just really emotionally
rewarding."
She hopes one day the negative stigma associated with being a surrogate
carrier will disappear.
"It's not a dirty secret," she said. "It can be a
really good thing."
© The StarPhoenix (Saskatoon) 2005
http://www.canada.com/saskatoon/starphoenix/news/story.html?id=b5c7dc37-1cff-489d-adaf-d34abba505e7&p=2
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