Surrogacy Agency Owner Scandal Part II

Attorneys like myself who practice in this field and who own agencies are sickened when we hear of other agency owners preying on couples desperate to have a child. I am helping a couple from France, who are now pregnant with twins, who gave an agency owner on the East Coast $30,000 only to never hear from him again. This owner, like Nanette Delp, also has opened a new agency with a new name and location. The article below also states the the California legislatures have no interest in regulating surrogacy and egg donation agencies, which is unfortunate as it could help prevent more couples being scammed by unscrupulous agency owners. The advice I give couples is to get references either from your IVF Physician or from other couples who have worked with the agency. And, Google the agencies to see what others say about them.

http://cbs13.com/topstories/local_story_333220537.html

Safety of Egg Donation

Missouri's Nov. 7 ballot on stem-cell research has caused one of its opponents, Vitae Caring Foundation in Jefferson City, to produce an ad of a woman hunched over in pain from recently donating eggs. However, according to experts in the field the ad is greatly exagerated as most woman experience nothing more than bloating and cramping after donating.

http://www.kansascity.com/mld/kansascity/15762292.htm

Utah Courts Deciding Who Will Raise Anthony

A little boy conceived via surrogacy, and later adopted by Matt and Tony Worthington, now waits for the state Supreme Court to decide who will raise him. Two month's after Anthony's birth, the boy's biological father, Arturo Nuosci, who is a Canadian citizen and was living in the U.S. illegally, was arrested and charged with fraud. The surrogate, Rachel Sullivan, had two children of her own and relinquished her rights to the boy through adoption. Nuosci never relinquished his rights.

In June 2005, 3rd District Judge Bruce Lubeck found the relinquishment Sullivan signed legally flawed. While Utah law makes clear a conviction alone isn't grounds to keep a parent from a child, Lubeck decided he could not terminate the rights of Anthony's parents. Lubeck also dismissed the Worthingtons' adoption petition. But he left Anthony in their care, with control over who would see him. The couple had already ended visits with the boy's relatives, a decision questioned during arguments in the appeal by Justice Michael Wilkins, and attacked by the boy's parents.

http://www.sltrib.com/news/ci_4463846

Hazards of Egg Donation

The National Research Council and Institute of Medicine convened a panel of experts to explore the medical and psychological hazards likely to be borne by women participating as egg donors in stem cell research. The findings concluded that while the procedure is invasive, the risks are minimal to egg donors, and those having an embryo implanted following egg donation appear to experience more symptoms. Women who donate their eggs, either for research or to help an infertile couple, do not usually have embryos transferred back into them.

Also, under California law, women donating their eggs for research will receive no fee. This excludes women who donate to couples experiencing infertility. In those cases, women receive $5,000 to $10,000.

Stem Cell Panel Ponders Hazards of Egg Donation

Hope for Freezing Eggs

Unlike sperm, which can be frozen and used with great sucess in assisted reproductive techniques, freezing a woman's eggs has proven to be difficult and the success rates have been very low. Donor eggs for women who can no longer use their own genetic material to have a child and would like to experience pregnancy and childbirth is still the most viable option, but new results released today have shown promise. Six babies have been born as of September 2006 and another baby is due this December.

http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/061002/clm515.html?.v=44

Surrogacy Agency Owner Scandal

As an attorney who practices in reproductive law, and as the founder and co-owner of a surrogate and egg donation agency, I find it despicable that an agency owner would profit at the expense of grief-stricken clients who are desperate for a child of their own. We recenlty helped a client who was also a victim of fraud and lost $30,000 of his own money. While he will probalby never recieve resitution, I am happy to say that his surrogate is pregnant with his last frozen embryos. Perhaps some of the victims of Ms. Delp will have as happy an ending to their journey to parenthood.

http://cbs13.com/seenon/local_story_276002317.html