Progress Leader - "Kew couple’s vote hope" by Cassie Maher

A KEW lesbian couple have urged local Upper House MPs to support a controversial law they say will change their lives.

Jacqui Tomlins and partner Sarah Nichols were married in Canada in 2003 and have three children - Corin, 6, Scout, 3, and Cully, 18 months.

The pair are desperately hoping the Assisted Reproductive Technology (ART) Bill, passed by the Lower House in October, will gain support in a December 2 conscience vote.

The Bill, which has met strong opposition from church and Christian groups, would give lesbians access to IVF, surrogacy or insemination in Victoria; and it would legally recognise the female partner of a woman who has given birth via assisted reproductive technology as a parent.

Ms Tomlins said as a non-biological parent (Ms Nichols gave birth through IVF) she had no legal connection to her children. “If I’m killed in an accident they don’t have access to compensation, or to my estate. I can’t provide legal consent for medical emergencies and if anything happened to Sarah I wouldn’t get automatic custody,” she said.

Ms Tomlins said the Kew community had been “hugely supportive” of the couple’s five-year fight for greater rights within same-sex families (Progress Leader, May 2007 and January 2008).

Favourable votes from Southern Metropolitan Liberal MPs David Davis and Andrea Coote were now “critical”, Ms Tomlins said. Both opposed the Bill in its second reading (20 votes to 18) on November 13.

“If they want to represent the community then they need to support this,” Ms Tomlins said.

Mr Davis said he was generally supportive of the Bill, but criticised mandatory police checks that could act as a barrier for those seeking fertility treatments.

Ms Coote said last week it was too early for a “definitive answer” until a report came back from the legislative committee with amendments.

[Link: Original Article ]

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UTSpeaks: Reproductive Minefields - Can we make laws to deal with the social and ethical complexities of surrogate pregnancies?

The UTSpeaks series presented on 29 October 2008 a talk by ANita Stuhmcke entitled "Reproductive Minefields - Can we make laws to deal with the social and ethical complexities of surrogate pregnancies?"

"Advances in reproductive technology, harnessed to powerful emotional drives for parenthood, have outpaced an inconsistent patchwork of Australian biomedical law.

The silence of NSW law on surrogate motherhood is now being addressed, but how effective will regulation be in balancing community standards with what people are prepared to do to have a child? Would a national approach be more effective?"

Anita Stuhmcke - Associate Professor Anita Stuhmcke has studied surrogacy and the laws surrounding it for more than 15 years, becoming a sought-out public commentator on the issues of using third parties to produce children. She teaches in the fields of tort and biomedical law in the UTS Faculty of Law, with a general research interest in exploring the limits of the law to accommodate social, political and economic change.

The material on this talk is available from the UTS Website

* flyer (PDF 52k)
* presentation slides (PDF 112k)
* talk (PDF 116k)
* audio recording (MP3 22.7 MB)

UTSPEAKS: is a free public lecture series presented by UTS experts discussing a range of important issues confronting contemporary Australia.

[Link: Original Article]

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The Advertiser - "30 South Australian lesbian mums 'impregnated by same man" by Tony Shepherd

UNREGULATED sperm donation is leading to unusual situations in which the children of lesbians in Adelaide are mixing socially - creating a risk of incest.

One of South Australia's foremost experts in reproductive technology - Reverend Dr Andrew Dutney - says that in one reported case, about 30 lesbians were impregnated by sperm from one man.

The mothers then organised picnics with all the children, raising the fear they might socialise with their half-siblings without realising they are related.

In another case, a man's sperm was used to produce 29 children, most of whom are living in Adelaide. They do not know who their half-siblings are, raising concerns that in a "big country town" like Adelaide, they could accidentally commit incest.

In South Australia it has become standard practice to identify sperm donors, which has put men off donating through reproductive clinics.

Fertility treatments do not generally cater to homosexuals, because the law says it is only for infertile couples or those at risk of transmitting a serious defect.

These factors combine to push many people wanting children to seek help elsewhere - either through "turkey basters" or casual sex with friends or willing participants found online.

Assoc Prof Dutney, the former chair of the SA Council on Reproductive Technology and Associate Professor of Theology at Flinders University, says the SA regulations are at fault and should be repealed altogether, leaving reproductive medical units to comply with the national ethical guidelines.

He uses the anecdote of the "very generous" sperm donor to emphasise that when people are excluded from access to reproductive technology, it forces them to go it alone, and have children outside the normal system.

Those children were born about a decade ago, meaning they will be reaching adolescence in the next few years.

"The effect of our regulations here in SA is that they produce unregulated donor conception, whereas a system with a lighter touch would bring a whole lot more parents and children into the light," Assoc Prof Dutney said.

"The situation at the moment is that ... by adhering to the SA legislation, clinics have to be in breach of the national code.

"Under SA's legislation, anonymity is guaranteed while under the national code of ethics, the child's access to knowledge has to be provided."

A different man's sperm was used to produce 29 children, most of whom are living in Adelaide. Again, they don't know they are related.

Leonie Hewitt is the mother of one of the children in Adelaide from the second example mentioned above. She is also the spokeswoman for the Sydney-based Donor Conception Support Group of Australia.

She says people need to recognise the "human rights" of the children in all of this.

"There needs to be consistent national legislation," she said.

"We need to protect people who are conceived through donations whether in straight or homosexual families, we need to protect those children.

"We need national harmonising legislation that protects human rights."

[Link: Original Article ]

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Melbourne Leader - "Life’s Indian Givers" by Hamish Heard

AN increasing number of homosexual Melbourne men are flying to India to save money on the cost of having babies, a gay parents’ organisation says.


Gay Dads Australia spokesman Rodney Cruise said gay Melburnians could save about $90,000 by using Indian surrogate mothers.


It is illegal for gay couples to have babies via surrogacy in Australia. But during the past seven years many have flown to the US or Canada where they pay about $120,000.


“Gay couples who previously wouldn’t have been able to have children because California is too expensive can take up the Indian option for basically a quarter of the cost,” Mr Cruise said.


“We’re seeing more and more couples take up the Indian option,” he said.


Mr Cruise said surrogacy cost only $30,000 in India.


Most of the money is paid to the surrogate, a woman who agrees to carry an embryo in her womb for the term of the pregnancy before giving birth and handing over the baby. Mr Cruise said couples could conceive using anonymous donor eggs or eggs donated by a relative or friend.


“Mostly it’s gestational, where the surrogate carries an embryo that has been created outside the womb. The surrogate rarely would use their own egg,” Mr Cruise said.


Until couples cottoned on to Indian surrogacy, only older, better-off couples could afford children.
“Generally people have been mortgaging their homes to fund this, and that’s fine for people who are in that position, but it can be heartbreaking for those without the resources to do so,” Mr Cruise said.
He said the “vast majority” of Australians using overseas surrogates were from Melbourne.


“There’s probably 40 couples that I know that have had children via surrogacy.” He said many gay couples had been inspired by a 2003 documentary called Man Made: Two Men and a Baby, about Tony Wood and Lee Matthews, a Melbourne couple who became one of the first Australia to produce a baby using an overseas surrogate.


“Maybe Melbourne is just a town where people settle down, or it could be the fact that the pioneering couples were from Melbourne and that’s had an effect of inspiring others around them,” Mr Cruise said.


[Link: Original Article ]

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Australian Gay & Lesbian Law Blog - "Victoria: Major Changes to IVF Laws" by Stephen Page

Stephen Page from Brisbane, Queensland, Australia is a partner with Harrington Family Lawyers, Brisbane, a long established boutique family law firm. He writes a wonderful blog called "Australian Gay and Lesbian Law Blog". [Ed - Rodney Cruise]



The Victorian Government has put a Bill before the Parliament proposing major changes to the way that ART and IVF services are delivered. The Assisted Reproductive Treatment Bill 2008 proposes a new regime for the regulation of IVF services.

Some significant features:
- surrogate arrangements will now be able to occur in Victoria. They will not be limited to married couples. People seeking surrogate arrangements could be single (male or female), married or de facto, or same sex partners.
- commercial surrogacy in Victoria could occur. However, the surrogate mother can only receive her expenses reimbursed and cannot be allowed to profit. There would also be a ban on advertising for surrogates. In reality, these limitations should prevent commercial surrogacy.
- an egg or sperm from a dead person can be used to fertilise the dead person's partner (so is not limited to married couples, and might include lesbian but not gay couples) in limited cases.
- sets up the Victorian Assisted Reproductive Treatment Authority.
- changes presumptions about children for women who are single or have female partners- "the man who produced the semen used in the procedure is presumed, for all purposes, not to be the father of any child born as a result of the pregnancy whether or not the man is known to the woman or her female partner" and the female partner is presumed to be a parent. However, if a donor egg was used, the donor is presumed not to be the mother of the child born as a result of the pregnancy. Therefore if the female partner were to be the donor, she would be a parent but not the mother.

The Bill is subject to a conscience vote, so it remains to be seen if it passes both Houses.

[Link: Original Article ]

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Melbourne Leader - "The Money that did Buy Happiness" by Hamish Heard

Nearly two years ago the dream of parenthood became a reality for gay Richmond couple Rodney Cruise and Jeff Chiang.

Taking out a $120,000 mortgage on their home seemed a tiny price to pay for the birth of their son, Ethan Chiang-Cruise, who arrived in January last year.

It all started in 2005.

"Jeff and I had been together for about 5 years and we both desperately wanted to have a child", Mr Cruise said.

After watching a documentary about one of the first gay Melbourne couples to parent a child using an overseas surrogate mother, the couple engaged a surrogacy agent in California.

The agent soon introduced the pair to Kelly, a woman from a small town in Ohio who agreed to carry an embryo fertilised using a donor egg and sperm from Mr Chiang or Mr Cruise.

"We immediately became very good friends with Kelly and three months after we met she had her first IVF cycle and got pregnant straight away," Mr Cruise said.

Mr Chiang has an Asian background and the pair, not wanting to fight over who was the biological father, used two egg donors.

One egg was from a Caucasian donor and the other had an Asian background, ensuring the child would be Eurasian regardless of its biological father.

"We haven't told anyone who the biological father is because that is something for Ethan to find out when he's older," Mr Cruise said.

Mr Cruise, 41, is a lawyer and Mr Chiang, 39, works in IT.

"It's impossible to describe the joy and excitement of seeing Ethan grow from this little baby into a toddler and learning to speak and walk, " Mr Cruise said.

"All parents have the same feeling.  He's the apple of our eye," he said.

Mr Cruise said the pair did not see their family structure as unusual.

"Things are changing and we know that Ethan is growing up in an environment that is not special., it's just one of the varieties that exists."

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Stonnington Leader - "Offshore surrogacy hot topic at Prahran forum" by Kate Bruce-Rosser

GAY men are looking to India to pursue the dream of parenthood, Gay Dads Victoria says.

A surrogacy forum in Prahran tonight will explain how the country is the “new growth region” for gay singles and couples seeking fatherhood through surrogacy.

But the Australian Family Association says surrogacy “flat out denies children basic human rights”.

Gay Dads spokesman Rodney Cruise said gay men had the same desire to be fathers as straight men.

Would-be fathers used to go to the US and Canada, where commercial surrogacy was legal but expensive, he said. Paid surrogacy is banned in Australia.

“The surrogacy industry in India is mature and well-regulated,” Mr Cruise said.

“The lower costs mean the option to create a family has opened up to a much larger number of gay men.”

Surrogacy costs about $120,000 in North America compared with $40,000 in India, he said.

The Australian Family Association opposed surrogacy, AFA researcher Tim Cannon said.

“We understand lots of people want to have children, including gay men, but we believe surrogacy flat out denies children basic human rights,” he said.

Surrogate children were deprived of knowing both biological parents, which could lead to identity crises, he said.

Mr Cruise and his partner, Jeff Chiang, have a 21-month-old son, Ethan, “the best thing I’ve ever done in my whole life”.

“Gay (couples) are capable of providing all the love required to raise children,” Mr Cruise said.

Mr Cannon said the AFA was also concerned about “exploited” Indian women who “rented out” their wombs.

Mr Cruise said this was “unfair” and “patronising”, assuming women in India were less capable than Western women of informed choices.

Indian women were screened to ensure they understood the nature of surrogacy, and only mothers could be surrogates, he said.

About 40 gay couples in Victoria have had surrogate children, and many of them in Stonnington, Mr Cruise said.

Forum inquiries: gaydadsaustralia.com.au

[Link: Original Article ]

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