Intended Parents Lose Custody of Twins to Surrogate

This past week The New York Times ran an article on the Michigan surrogate who gave birth to the twins she later sued for custody -- and won.

Why didn't the IVF specialist at IVF Michigan insist on a legal contract between the parents and the surrogate with an experienced assisted reproduction attorney? An experienced ART attorney would have advised the couple NOT to work with a surrogate from the state of Michigan. Well, not unless they were comfortable in taking the risk of losing their children, which they did.

All IVF Centers that I work with will not do a transfer of embryos on a surrogate without legal clearance from an experienced ART attorney and this case clearly illustrates why. Intent to parent controls in California, the state where I practice, so this type of case typically does not happen here.

And why is the Intended Mother unfit to care for her children? She has not had a schizophrenic episode, in what, eight years? I was speaking with a former surrogate today and she said, "good for the Intended Mother in not wanting to harm herself or her unborn children by getting pregnant while on medication." Are you unfit to parent solely based on the fact that you have been diagnosed with a mental illness?

I cannot stress enough the importance of working with an experienced ART attorney, especially when there is no biological link between either or both parents. Cases like these should not be happening. Creating your family using a third party is expensive, but if you pass on or forget to get an attorney, the price you may pay could be much, much higher.

The Right to Have 11 Children Defended

I tweeted about this the other day but since Octomom issues like this don't go away and need to be revisited. First, it should be clarified that this couple's children were not conceived using in vitro fertilization but rather ovulation induction where the woman is stimulated using either Clomid or injectable medications and either has intercourse with her husband or her physician performs an IUI (intrauterine insemination). In my research induction usually causes more multiples than in vitro. Yes, I know Nadya Suluman had her eight children with IVF but she really and truly is not the norm.

Most IVF physicians that I work with think a failure during an assisted reproduction cycle is when the patient either doesn't get pregnant or she gets pregnant with more than twins.

Further, this couple has two children previously, two sets of quads and now twins (one child did not survive). IVF is a much more expensive procedure and if ovulation induction is working, and it certainly has for this couple, no doctor is going to recommend a much more expensive and invasive procedure when it is not necessary.

I know it is a tough subject, especially for all of you struggling to have one child. The knife couldn't go in far enough or deep enough. Contact me if you want to talk or scream or cry. I'll listen.

What do you think? Should this couple have had 11 children using assisted reproduction techniques?

Assisted Reproduction and Autism

It’s only speculation now that environmental factors, including assisted reproduction technologies, have contributed to the high increase in the number of children diagnosed with Autism. Education and awareness of Austin have been key to the increasing diagnosis in children. The study, by Irva Hertz-Picciotto, PhD, MPH, chief of the division of environmental and occupational health at the University of California, Davis, clearly demonstrated that they increase in reported cases is very real. While most of the research being conducted is genetic based, the author says that more research should be done on environmental factors, including assisted reproduction technologies, which have only become available in the past 30 years.

Before I cause panic, I need to let you know that assisted reproduction was not the only environmental factor considered by the author of the study. Others included shampoos, soaps, and medications.