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.

New Jersey Rules for Gestational Carrier

If you follow my tweets (@surrogacylawyer) you know about the Superior Court judge in New Jersey's ruling that the gestational carrier who bore twins for her brother is now their legal mother.

As a follow-up, there is great piece today in the Huffington Post by Jacob M. Appel about this ruling and how New Jersey missed an opportunity to not only move away from the Baby M case and differentiate between traditional and gestational surrogacy, but also to allow women to make the decision if surrogacy is right for them. As Mr Appel says so eloquently, no one argues that men are being degraded or demeaned if they decided to become sperm donors. Why are surrogates any different?

And, if men were able to become surrogates, they would be applauded as entrepreneurs. I agree with Mr. Appel that women are perfectly able to make the decision for themselves and should be allowed to do so in every state, not just California, among others.

What say you?