Surrogacy Services Suspension: Nepal’s Top Court Orders

Nepal’s top court orders suspension of surrogacy services

Nepal’s top court has ordered a halt to commercial surrogacy services in the Himalayan nation until it rules on the legality of the practice, an official said Wednesday. Nepal has become a destination for foreigners, including many Israelis, seeking to have children through surrogate mothers. The practice is controversial, with critics saying it exploits the poverty of women.

Although Nepal has no laws on its books covering surrogacy, the government last year allowed foreign women to serve as surrogates in Nepal but barred local women.

“There are no laws regarding surrogacy… it raises many constitutional and legal questions,” said Nahakul Subedi, spokesman for the Supreme Court.

“So the court issued a stay order on surrogacy services yesterday … until the case is settled,” Subedi told AFP.

Advocate Prabin Pandak, who filed the original lawsuit against the practice, told AFP the court’s order would put a stop to the registration of new cases.

“Women should not be a subject of trade, neither should a child,” Pandak said.

“Nepali women are not allowed to be surrogate mothers but they are misrepresented as Indian and used for surrogacy,” she said.

Nepal has become an attractive destination for couples who find its services cheaper than those offered by surrogacy agencies in the West.

Israel in April airlifted 25 infants born to Indian surrogate mothers in Kathmandu after Nepal was hit by a devastating quake that killed nearly 9,000 people.

In Israel, only heterosexual couples are legally able to use surrogacy, and there are many restrictions on who can serve as a surrogate. While straight couples must go through an onerous committee process in order to qualify for surrogacy, homosexual couples are left completely out of the system. Consequently, they must look to foreign surrogacy as a means of producing a child biologically related to one member of the couple.

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AFP and Times of Israel Staff – August 26, 2015

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Gay Rights: Couple’s Legal Battle in Thailand

Gay Rights: Couple’s Legal Battle in Thailand Highlights Commercial Surrogacy Issues

Gay rights amid Thailand’s commercial surrogacy industry has been complicated and controversial this past year. It’s been half a year since Baby Carmen was born in Thailand, but aside from the pictures, everything else remains fuzzy. For biological father Gordon Lake and his partner, Manuel Santos, what started as a legal agreement to have a surrogate baby has evolved into a custody battle.

But one thing remains clear to the American-born Lake. “Carmen is a U.S. citizen,” he said. “She’s biologically my daughter. That’s been proven with a DNA test. The embassy has issued a CRBA, a consular report birth abroad, which certifies her as a U.S. citizen.”

Thailand’s commercial surrogacy industry made headlines last year when a newborn with Down syndrome was left behind by an Australian couple, while they took his healthy twin sister.

Following the negative exposure, the government banned commercial surrogacy. The law came into effect in July.

But the surrogate mother said she wasn’t aware of one fact about the couple.

“If they were a mother and father like a normal parents under Thai culture, I would have no problem being a surrogate for them,” said the surrogate, Patida Kusongsang. “If I had known they were a gay couple, I would not have done this for them, because in Thai culture we don’t have this kind of status.”

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by Steve Sanford, August 14, 2015 – VOANews.com

BANGKOK—

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Adoption Rights: The next frontier for Alabama

Adoption rights: The next frontier for gay Alabama couples two months after marriage ruling

For a handful of Alabama’s family-minded gay couples, first came love, then came marriage, then came bureaucratic headaches, legal bills and months of waiting. Adoption rights are the next frontier for gay Alabama couples two months after marriage ruling.

They’re not looking to become the state’s first gay divorcees, though that milestone is likely not far off if it has not already been reached. These couples are instead looking to take the traditional next step of expanding their families now that their weddings and honeymoons are in the rear-view, and they are specifically interested in adopting a child.

Even a year ago, the idea of gay Alabamian couples embarking on the path toward married parenthood would have been inconceivable for many Alabamians.

But the Supreme Court cleared the path for achieving that goal with its landmark gay marriage ruling less than two months ago, and a number of gay Alabama couples are facing the myriad challenges that all couples seeking to adopt must overcome, in addition to some that are specific to would-be adoptive parents of the same gender.

Newlyweds Clay Jones and Joe Babin are at the vanguard of the small but growing list of gay Alabama married couples seeking to adopt an infant. As of last month the Irondale residents have passed the background checks, screenings, physical examinations, financial assessments and other evaluations required of all couples of any sexuality hoping to adopt, and now they are “just waiting on a baby,” according to Babin.

Jones, 41, and Babin, 39, say that they are at a stage in their lives mentally, emotionally and financially where they are ready to have a child, and that the timing just seems to be right given their circumstances, their age and the political developments of the past year.

“We’re ready to go. We kind of made the decision that we were ready and we knew we financially and mentally had some stability to offer, that we were going to try to do it. So then we were at the point where we can now, and then we got married. So I mean I feel good that it’s going to happen,” Jones said. “[With] what’s happening in the south of the United States and what’s happening in Alabama, it’s time. I feel like it’s time that it will happen.”

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by Connor Sheets, AL.com, August 16, 2015

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Same Sex Couples Challenge Adoption Ban

Mississippi Ban on Adoptions by Same Sex Couples Is Challenged

When Mississippi adopted a one-sentence law forbidding adoptions by same-sex couples in 2000, it was not so surprising: For decades, gays and lesbians in several states had run into roadblocks when they sought to adopt or foster children. So it was a potent marker of how fast laws and attitudes on gay rights issues have changed on Wednesday when civil rights lawyers filed suit in federal court challenging the law.

Mississippi’s ban is now the only one of its kind in the nation. And legal experts said that in the wake of the United States Supreme Court’s decision upholding same-sex marriage it was highly unlikely the state’s ban could hold up in court. The lawsuit was filed by the Campaign for Southern Equality, the Family Equality Council and four Mississippi same-sex couples.

“We’ve come so far here just recently, it’s pretty amazing the speed of the change,” said Janet Smith, a plaintiff in the case, who is seeking to adopt the 8-year-old daughter, Hannah Marie Phillips, she is raising with her wife, Donna Phillips. Because of the adoption ban, Ms. Smith has no official status in Hannah’s life, Ms. Phillips being her only legal parent.

“We’ve had no problem, but I am in the military, so I could be called or activated at any time, and we are concerned about the legal aspects for Jan if something happened,” said Ms. Phillips, who is a captain in the Mississippi Air National Guard.

At one point, they tried to find someone who would do the home study that would be a requirement for adoption, but could not find anyone who would come to their home to do it. Both women are cautiously hopeful that the lawsuit will quickly change their situation. “It seems like it’s just the logical next step, but oftentimes Mississippi doesn’t take the logical next step,” Ms. Smith said.

29% of same sex couples raising children

Last year, 29 percent of Mississippi’s same-sex-couples were raising children under 18 in their households — the highest percentage of any state in the nation, the complaint said.

“The Mississippi Adoption Ban writes inequality into Mississippi law by requiring that married gay and lesbian couples and parents be treated differently than all other married couples in Mississippi, unequivocally barring them from adoption without regard to their circumstances,” the complaint said. It called the ban “an outdated relic of a time when courts and legislature believed that it was somehow O.K. to discriminate against gay people simply because they are gay.”

Neither the governor’s office nor the state attorney general’s office returned messages Tuesday afternoon, asking whether the state would fight to uphold the ban against the challenge.

Roberta Kaplan, the New York lawyer handling the case, said that after the Supreme Court ruling, it seemed obvious to her and her clients that “the time was right to challenge the adoption ban and get it cleaned up.”

That the case now seems more likely to be a mop-up operation than an all-out legal confrontation is an indicator of just how swiftly the social change has taken hold.

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New York Times, August 12, 2015 by Tamar Lewin

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Same Sex Adoption Ban Struck Down

Mexico Supreme Court Strikes Down Same Sex Adoption Ban

Mexico’s Supreme Court ruled Tuesday that a 2013 law in the southeastern state of Campeche that forbids same sex adoption of children is unconstitutional and struck it down. The challenge to the ban was filed by the state’s human rights commission. Supreme Court Judge Margarita Luna announced her intention to present the motion on a federal level in early July. Gay marriages and adoption laws are largely legal in the country’s heartland, though several far-flung states witness more opposition.

The state law was struck down in a 9-1 ruling. Presiding Judge Luis Maria Aguila said the decision was made keeping in mind the protection of adopted children. “I see no problem for a child to be adopted in a society of co-existence, which has precisely this purpose. Are we going to prefer to have children in the street, which according to statistics exceed 100,000? We attend, of course, and perhaps with the same intensity or more, to the interests of the child,” Aguila said, according to Latin American news network TeleSUR.

In June, the apex court also ruled that it was unconstitutional to deny marriage to people of the same sex — a ruling that came shortly before a similar one from the U.S. Supreme Court. The Mexican court ruling does not legalize same-sex marriage nationwide, but opens the door to couples seeking marital recognition to pursue injunctions against states.

In Mexico, gay marriages were first legalized in the capital Mexico City in 2009, in a ruling that was upheld by the country’s highest court. Same-sex couples who married under the city’s law have been adopting children since 2010. In addition, same-sex marriage rights are fully recognized in the states of Chihuahua, Coahuila, Guerrero and Quintana Roo.

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International Business Times – August 12, 2015 By  

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Same Sex Families Foster Parenting Victory

Same Sex Families Foster Parenting Victory in Nebraska

Yesterday, a Nebraska District Court ruled that a discriminatory policy that barred same sex families from becoming foster parents was unconstitutional. The two-decade-old policy, Memo I-95, barred same sex families from obtaining state foster parent licenses.

This change will finally allow child welfare agencies to expand the pool of foster and adoptive families for Nebraska’s children.
“Nebraska’s motto of ‘Equality before the Law’ rings out more truly for all of us on this thrilling day,” Danielle Conrad, Executive Director of ACLU of Nebraska, said in a release. “This is a special victory for thousands of children in Nebraska who now have more options to find loving and stable
homes.”
Earlier this year, Nebraska child welfare officials announced they would stop enforcing the law.
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HRC.org, by Hayley Miller, August 6, 2015

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Commercial Surrogacy: Thailand Bans It!

ibnlive.com, August 7, 2015

Bangkok: A new law banning commercial surrogacy has come into effect in Thailand, a destination popular with foreigners and gay couples looking for cheaper surrogacy services.

The law banning commercial surrogacy was passed in February and came into effect from this month.

The law came after outrage following an Australian couple last year leaving a surrogate twin boy who had Down Syndrome behind in Thailand, taking his healthy sister.

The controversy triggered an immediate backlash in Thailand, forcing commercial surrogate operators to shut down operations.

Under the new law, a couple, a man and a woman, to avail surrogacy must be legally married for at least three years with one or both holding Thai nationality.

The surrogate mother is required to be a sibling of the couple, but not the parents or the couple’s children. The surrogate woman must also have her own child and have her husband’s consent.

If the woman is not a relative of the couple, the woman needs to meet regulations laid down by the Thai public health ministry.

Public Health Minister Rajata Rajatanavin said foreign couples would no longer be able to seek surrogacy services in Thailand.

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Commercial Surrogacy, Indian Doctors Against Ban

Indian Doctors petition Supreme Court against ban on commercial surrogacy

The Indian Society for Assisted Reproduction (ISAR) has moved an application before the Supreme Court asking it not to quash a notification under which trading of “human embryo” is allowed. In the absence of a legislation to regulate commercial surrogacy, doctors and couples wanting surrogate children take refuge under the 2013 notification.

“There are hundreds of surrogates who have started their own small scale businesses like catering, beauty parlours, food joints and sewing coaching classes. They now own houses, their children study in English medium schools, their husbands have bought passenger rickshaws and their social status is markedly raised,” the society stated.

The petitioner claims to be a representative body of several scientists, doctors and research experts engaged in the field of assistive reproduction for childless parents. It has protested against advocate Jayashree Wad’s petition asking the court to strike down the 2013 notification.

Wad has contended that trading of human embryo under the Foreign Trade (Development and Regulations) Act is opposed to public policy, unethical and violates the principle of doctrine of reasonableness. “Embryo is a life in the miniature form and cannot be considered as goods,” Wad has contended.

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Bhadra Sinha, Hindustan Times, New Delhi – August 5, 2015

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iSperm lets your iPad analyze your swimmers at home

CNET.com, by Michael Franco – July 20, 2015

The iPad can be used to show home movies — including films of babies as they come home from the hospital, take their first steps, and later, lock themselves in their rooms with loud music and their cell phones. Soon, iPads might be able to show a home movie of what a baby looked like before it was even created, by beaming live-action movies of your sperm swimming around.

That will be the case if Taiwanese startup Aidmics has its way.

The company has already invented a device called iSperm which according to Reuters has been sold to almost 200 farmers around the world. They use it to analyze the sperm counts of their boar to maximize the success of breeding programs. The news agency reports that Aidmics has announced plans to seek approval from the US Food and Drug Administration next year to expand the device’s use to men.

“Morphological assessment of sperm head and tail has never been this easy,” says the iSperm website.

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Italy failing same-sex couples says European court

by Reuters – July 21, 2015

The European Court of Human Rights condemned Italy on Tuesday for failing to provide legal recognition to same-sex couples and said the country should introduce some form of civil union for homosexual couples.

Italy is the only major western European country that does not recognize either civil partnerships or gay marriage.

The country was taken to the Strasbourg-based European Court by three homosexual couples who all complained that Italy discriminated against them because of their sexual orientation.

In their ruling, a panel of seven judges said same-sex couples in Italy needed greater legal rights.

“The Court considered that the legal protection currently available in Italy to same-sex couples … not only failed to provide for the core needs relevant to a couple in a stable committed relationship, but it was also not sufficiently reliable,” it said.

Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi said at the weekend his government would introduce a law on civil unions by the end of the year, convincing a junior minister to end a hunger strike he had started in early July to protest at the lack of legislation.

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