cnn.com
March 07, 2013
By Elizabeth Cohen, Senior Medical Correspondent
When Crystal Kelley agreed to carry someone else’s baby, she didn’t, in her words, “dot every ‘i’ and cross every ‘t.'”
That turned her surrogacy dream into a nightmare.
Surrogacy has become an increasingly popular way of having a baby. In 2010 there were 1,448 babies born to surrogates, up from 738 babies in 2004, according to the Society for Assisted Reproductive Technologies. Celebrities such as Nicole Kidman, Sarah Jessica Parker and Giuliana Rancic have helped increase awareness by using a surrogate.
In a surrogacy arrangement, a woman agrees to carry someone else’s baby for a fee, which is usually between $20,000 to $25,000 for a single fetus. The egg and sperm can come from the couple who hire the surrogate, or a donor egg or sperm are used.
Sometimes parents know their surrogate — she might be a sister or a friend. Other times the parents meet the surrogate through an agency.
For example, if parents feel strongly they would terminate the pregnancy if a fetal abnormality were found, they shouldn’t be matched with a surrogate who is adamantly opposed to abortion.
“You want to flesh out those issues and make sure you’re on the same page,” Bisman says.
But when problems do arise, as in Kelley’s case, the ending can be disastrous. Kelley says she assumed the parents were, like her, against abortion because the mother said her frozen embryos were her “babies” and she had to give them a chance at life. But when the fetus Kelley was carrying turned out to have birth defects, the parents wanted to abort and she didn’t.
Here are her tips for having a surrogacy arrangement with a happy ending.
1. Each side should have an attorney
The surrogate and the intended parents should each have their own lawyer review the contract.
2. Understand the limits of the contract
3. Agree on prenatal testing
Sometimes intended parents want an amniocentesis but the surrogate doesn’t want the test, which would involve having a needle stuck in her stomach. The two sides should come to an agreement before the pregnancy takes place.
4. Have a full psychological evaluation
Kelley said the intended parents weren’t present at her evaluation, which was done over the telephone. The subject of abortion never came up, she added. She said the evaluation was done by Rita Kron, who works at Surrogacy International, the agency that arranged the surrogacy.
CNN contacted Surrogacy International, and a woman who said her name was Rita answered the phone. “You have to understand something — there is a privacy that exists and that’s the end of the story,” she said and then hung up. Kron did not return CNN’s e-mails.
5. Understand the relationship after birth
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