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Surrogacy in New York Times Magazine: Meet the Twiblings
Posted On January 2nd, 2011

This week’s cover story (“Meet the Twiblings” by Melanie Thernstrom) does last year’s (or rather late 2009’s) “Her Body, My Baby” one better: Thernstrom has not just one child via a gestational surrogate, but two, via two surrogates, at the same time. Dare to judge!

Generally, this story is very positive on surrogacy and egg donation. Thernstrom was infertile and unhappy, and egg donation and surrogacy provided her with two healthy children. Furthermore, the medical procedures went smoothly: the first retrieval resulted in a good number of healthy embryos; enough for two separate transfers that both resulted in live births.  She is brave (and right) not to consider her egg donor and carriers as threats to her own maternity.

The piece is her own personal story, so one cannot quibble with her statements of feelings and opinions. But two egregious unsubstantiated points stood out:  “The Internet was filled with stories of predatory egg-donation and surrogacy agencies” and “There were several cases of surrogacy in recent years in which the surrogate succeeded in keeping the baby despite an absence of any genetic connection.” On the former, the Internet is filled with a lot of stories, many untrue. The vast majority of egg donation agencies are reputable. On the latter, I am unsure of these “several” cases to which she refers. But if a surrogacy takes place in a state with established legal protections in place, and governed by a proper contract, the carrier would have no claims to the child.

 

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Robert Wood Johnson study on egg donor satisfaction
Posted On November 1st, 2010

Here is a positive and accurate article on egg donation, demonstrating that egg donors find the experience rewarding: Egg donors happy they helped, small study finds.  An excerpt from the article:

“Up until now we’ve known that donors are by and large very satisfied by their experience when it takes place, and now we see that for the vast majority the positive experience persists.”

– Andrea M. Braverman, director of complementary and alternative medicine at Reproductive Medicine Associates of New Jersey in Morristown

 

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Sanford Benardo Speaks at Albany Law School
Posted On October 8th, 2010

Sanford M. Benardo will be speaking at the Albany Law School on October 28.  The Albany Law Journal of Science and Technology has dedicated its 20th anniversary symposium to assisted reproductive technology and Sanford’s talk will cover the concerns of recipients and concerns of donors in egg donor contracts.

Click here for more info.  (The symposium can always be viewed live via web.)

 

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The latest on Egg Donor Compensation
Posted On May 12th, 2010

Yet another reaction to the Hastings Center report, this time in the New York Times (“Payment Offers to Egg Donors Prompt Scrutiny“).

Here’s the shocker: people are willing to pay more for highly desirable egg donors! This is hardly news, although it is reported as such.

These outrageous offers get publicity, but they are far from the mainstream, and in fact, probably bogus. For many recipients, compensation within the ethical limits can be a hardship.

Any SART and ASRM registered clinic pledges to abide by the guidelines of these organizations. If a clinic works with an agency donor, the clinic should make sure that the agency complies with these guidelines as well. Some clinics require a letter from us testifying to our compliance. Plenty of agencies are members of SART, even though the article implies otherwise.

 

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Fertility Laws in the US vs Canada
Posted On March 25th, 2010

The following is a response to “The Human Egg Trade (How Canada’s Fertility Laws are failing donors, doctors, and parents)”.

The situation in Canada demonstrates how a lack of clear regulations for egg donation has a ripple effect of deviance from standard protocols in other parts of the process. The egg donation arrangement where a young woman was coerced to donate for an unofficial compensation even after having a failed cycle which produced no viable embryos and caused her painful hyperstimulation, was handled badly at every step, starting with egg donor/recipient relations to the medical procedure. What doctor would agree to cycle an egg donor after her last retrieval was so poor?

Doctors in the US scrupulously pore over egg donors’ records, and if there are any concerns she would not be allowed to donate again. Perhaps it is the ready availability of so many good candidates in the US that allows American doctors to be so picky. Doctors also have their own success rates at stake, which they need to maintain to attract patients.

The egg donation business in the US shows how a sensibly regulated free market works to the advantage of all, especially compared with Canada’s grey market or the UK, where they are so skittish that compensated donation is completely banned.

 

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More Myths about the Fertility Industry
Posted On December 19th, 2009

Self proclaimed “fertility planner” Angie Best-Boss, founder of My Fertility Plan, is quoted in the Washington Times (“Having a baby in the fertility maze: new specialty guides for parents“), regarding the value of her services:

“This is an industry that is not regulated at all. What you can’t get on Google is whether an agency is going to push you toward using an egg donor so that clinic can boost its stats.”

The misconception that the fertility industry is unregulated is so persistent, even so-called experts perpetuate it (out of ignorance and laziness). Fertility medicine is highly regulated by the FDA, and there are some firm ground rules set by the ASRM as well.*

On the second part of her statement: I do not know why an agency would have any interest in increasing a clinic’s statistics; I guess if the agency were affiliated with the clinic, this statement may make some kind of sense. But statistics are highly accessible to anyone, and you don’t need to hire a consultant for $125 an hour. I encourage all our clients to go to SART, click on For Patients, the Find a Clinic: plug in your zip code for a clinic near you or click on a state for all its registered clinics. There you can find the clinic’s CDC-reported statistics for the past few years, where they separate their cycles by donor and non-donor, and in the cases of non-donor,

 

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Reaction to New York Times Article on Surrogacy
Posted On December 13th, 2009

Today’s New York Times article (“Building a Baby, with Few Ground Rules“) describes cases that went wrong, even though it mentions in passing that most surrogacies work out just fine. I hope it does not discourage intended parents from pursuing surrogacy, or just make surrogacy appear unseemly in the eyes of the general public.

The Michigan and Indiana cases discussed did not follow the proper legal or medical protocols at all; in fact, the egregiousness is stunning. These surrogacy cases should have never happened in the first place. Michigan is one of the few states hostile to surrogacy and we, or any legitimate agency, would never allow a surrogacy to take place there. All the clinics we work with have very strict protocols in place for medical and psychological screening; the single man from New Jersey would have never even made it into our program (as we are careful about the intended parents we work with), let alone pass the psychological screening that would take place at the clinic.

The article mentions that the American College of Obstectricians and Gynecologists recommends that “surrogacies be handled by nonprofit agencies,” but I am unaware of any such agencies with the legal experience to handle such complicated arrangements.

The field of surrogacy (and assisted reproduction in general) is not as unregulated as commonly perceived.  In fact, there is case law and/or statutes in a number of US states, where surrogacy can be practiced legally and safely (see our article, “Assisted Reproductive Technology: Egg Donation and Surrogacy in Law and Practice,”

 

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NAFG Expands into Atlanta, Dallas, Miami, Washington DC
Posted On November 24th, 2009

Last week we announced the launch of four new locations for NAFG, in Atlanta, Dallas, Miami and Washington, DC.

We believe that by expanding our pool of egg donors, gestational carriers, and clients, it will be even easier for donors, recipients, gestational carriers and intended parents to take advantage of our services.  Press releases are linked below:

• Washington, DC
• Atlanta
• Miami
• Dallas

“Our new locations will offer the opportunity for our egg donors, gestational carriers, and intended parents to work locally, or take advantage of our recruitment efforts in other cities across the country. This makes NAFG unique among surrogacy and egg donation programs.”  – Sanford Benardo, Founder and President, Northeast Assisted Fertility Group

 

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Barnard College Holds Panel on Egg Donation
Posted On November 18th, 2009

A story ran on Tuesday about a panel at Barnard College which sought to raise questions about the cost and benefit in ongoing debates over egg donation.

Unless these quotations are wrong (and they may indeed be, if Barnard’s student journalism is as poorly researched as this panel discussion), these Barnard gals don’t really understand egg donation.

According to the panel’s organizer, who is apparently a student in her junior year: “Donors typically receive anywhere from $4,000 to $25,000 per egg.” This shows complete ignorance of the process, in which eggs are retrieved in numbers ranging from 5 to 20 or more at a time (no doctor would retrieve just one egg!). The donor gets paid per retrieval, not per egg. Her compensation does not depend on the number of eggs retrieved, but is a fixed amount agreed upon before the donation process starts. The compensation limit is $10,000 per retrieval, but these panel participants quote higher compensation fees throughout to make egg donation seem exploitive.

They also mention that egg donor advertisements do not include the risks. This is generally true, but although anyone can apply, only a small percentage of applicants actually go through with it (most do not qualify). Women who do donate are given extensive information about the risks. Most women who donate choose to do it again, and find it a very positive experience.

The panel discussion did not include any actual egg donors or anyone who conceived a child through egg donation: perhaps their participation would have injected some reality.

 

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Egg Donation & the Economy: Washington Times
Posted On September 23rd, 2009

The Washington Times has run an article, “Our bodies, our sales: No windfalls in plasma, egg donations” stating that while egg donation and surrogacy may provide financial payoffs, the criteria and long-term implications should be taken into consideration.  Kathy Benardo, director of the NAFG egg donor program, is quoted throughout this article on the economy’s impact on egg donation:

“I can get up to 100 applications a week.  Some don’t follow through when they see the screening they have to go through. Some are out of our age range [of 21 to 29 years old]. I even once got an application from a man. We also have a body-mass index qualification and an educational level qualification.”

Click here to read the article.

 

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