In New Zealand one couple per week heads overseas for a baby

In the United States a woman can be paid for her time and effort to donate her eggs or to carry someone else's baby. That is not so in most parts of the world, where paying a woman for her work (and make no mistake about it, it's work) is illegal. That is exactly what Mellany and Simon have had to do as they live in New Zealand, where paying a woman for her services to donate her eggs is illegal. As a result, there are very few women who will donate for altruistic reasons, so many couples are forced to go abroad.

Can you imagine traveling to a foreign country to have your family? If you are from New Zealand at least you do not have to deal with the language barrier if you come to the US, but what about those from Spain? France?

Mellany and Simon have been trying for eight years and they say:

Nothing would be too great to realise the dream....You just expect that you're going to get older get married have a family and live happily ever after.

I was fortunate enough to only have to travel to another state where my children were born via surrogacy so I have great compassion for those who come halfway around the world to become a family.

However, bioethicist Professor Gareth Jones says:

Do we want to have markets of buying and selling for not only human tissue but also children, or babies? I think there are issues involved here ethically.

What say you? As always feel free to comment below.

The Third Party: Olympia: Surrogate Mothers Are Not For Sale

The Third Party: Olympia: Surrogate Mothers Are Not For Sale

Mom says church threatened to kick her out over "gay" blog post

Her son? He's five years old.

A mom blogger knows as "Cop's Wife" posted a picture of her son and wrote about how she decided to allow her 5-year-old son to dress as his favorite cartoon character, Daphne from Scooby Doo.

She even went on the Today Show to talk about the decision. This was last fall. Now she writes in her blog:

"I cannot tell you the betrayal I feel. The church, or at the very least Pastor is trying to bully me into shutting up, and I find that so disheartening. I am floored by the fact that they’ve gone to so much trouble regarding a post that discusses love and tolerance that was posted 3 months ago. I am shocked that they do not see the hypocrisy of what they are saying to me. I am in complete disbelief that this has been handled in the way it has. I have never felt less welcome in a church. This is not the church that I grew up in. This is not the God that I know."

I doubt we have heard the last on this issue so stay tuned and fee free to comment.

Belgium Gay Couple's Son in Ukrainian Orphanage

What a sad story for this couple, Laurent and Peter, a gay couple from Belgium who decided to have a child through surrogacy, in part because it is very difficult for a gay couple to adopt a child in their country.

The unfortunate part is they chose Ukraine for their surrogacy and now, 2 1/2 years after their child's birth, the baby languishes in a Ukrainian orphanage. The reason: the child is not a citizen of the Ukraine so that country will not issue legal papers, including a passport and nor is the child a citizen of Belgium because that country, while not having any laws for or against surrogacy, will not issue legal papers.

No matter what you think of the couple, no child should suffer like this.

I received a desperate call last summer from a couple who had a newborn daughter born via surrogacy in India. The husband's country, Spain, was refusing to issue a passport. I was able to connect them to an experienced surrogacy attorney in India and fortunately the mother was American and after 3 months they were finally able to leave that country.