9.28.2011 – PRWEB.com American experts, a surrogate mother, French parents and academics weighed in on a topic that divides France, where surrogacy is still illegal. Instead of pros or cons, they concentrated on providing guidelines on how surrogacy can be carried out ethically. The ethical principles Dr. Doyle outlined include fully informing and protecting surrogates and donors from medical and psychological risks, treating them with dignity...

July 4, 2011 – New York Times - By LAURA M. HOLSON Laura Ashmore and Jennifer Williams are sisters. After that, their relationship becomes more complex. When Ms. Ashmore and her husband, Lee, learned a few years ago that they could not conceive a child, Ms. Williams stepped in and offered to become pregnant with a donor’s sperm on behalf of the couple, and give birth to the child. The baby, Mallory, was born in September 2007 and adopted...

Estate Planning for same-sex couples in New York just got a lot more interesting.  While marriage equality is certainly welcome in the Empire State, there are now conflicting Federal and State guidelines that must be understood and incorporated into your overall estate plan.  Conflicts between these two governing interests must be resolved as best as possible and your estate plan must be a portable as possible. A comprehensive estate plan must now...

Tuesday, June 14, 2011 Beyond (Straight and Gay) Marriage by Nancy Polikoff An Ohio trial judge granted Julie Rowell temporary visitation with the daughter she raised for five years with her former partner, Julie Smith. The child was conceived through donor insemination while the couple was together. When Smith refused to allow the court-ordered temporary visitation, the trial judge held her in contempt of court. Last week, an Ohio appeals...

June 3, 2011 New York Times By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS LOS ANGELES (AP) — The case of the doctor who lost his license for helping “Octomom” bear the world’s largest-surviving brood of babies has rattled the field of fertility medicine — a $3 billion industry with little regulation. When the Medical Board of California revoked the license of Dr. Michael Kamrava on Wednesday, it was a rare outcome that came more than two years...

Beyond (Straight and Gay) Marriage – Nancy Polikof – May 14, 2011 Timo Miller, the Christian missionary and Mennonite pastor arrested last month for aiding and abetting the international kidnapping of Isabella Miller-Jenkins by her biological mother, Lisa Miller, has set up a website telling his side of the story and seeking funds for his defense. A Vermont court ordered a change of custody after Lisa repeatedly defied the court orders...

Keen News Service, April 22, 2011 – By Lisa Keen A man accused of helping a former lesbian sneak a child out of the country, violating a court order that the mother turn the child over to her former same-sex partner, was arrested April 18 and will be arraigned in federal court in Vermont on Monday, April 25. According to court documents, the FBI arrested Timothy David Miller in Alexandria, Virginia, on charges that he aided in the international...

Married couples will have preference when it comes to adopting children under a new measure signed into law by Gov. Jan Brewer on Monday. Senate Bill 1188, which was sponsored by Sen. Linda Gray, R-Glendale, would require an adoption agency to give primary consideration to adoptive placement with a married man and woman, with all other criteria being equal. Agencies are also supposed to consider other factors, including possible placement with relatives,...

Washington Post – 4.20.11 By Anita Kumar RICHMOND — The State Board of Social Services has voted overwhelmingly against new adoption rules that some say would allow same-sex couples to adopt in the state for the first time. In a 7-2 vote Wednesday afternoon, the board opted against the new rules, first proposed by former governor Tim Kaine. In Virginia, only married couples and single men and women, regardless of sexual orientation,...

Human Egg Donor Services Antitrust Class Action Lawsuit ComplaintApril 13, 2011   A class action lawsuit has been filed against American Society For Reproductive Medicine (“ASRM”), Society for Assisted Reproductive Technology (“SART”) and Pacific Fertility Center (collectively “Defendants”) in the United States District Court for the Northern District of California (styled Lindsay Kamakahi v. American Society For Reproductive Medicine,...