Blog

Sanford Benardo Makes an Appearance on The View
Posted On June 27th, 2011

Sanford M. Benardo, Esq., president of Northeast Assisted Fertility Group, appeared on ABC’s The View this week, in an exciting episode co-hosted by special guest Giuliana Rancic focusing on surrogacy.

Update – A summary of what was discussed:

Where is Surrogacy legal?

  • Commercial surrogacy – paying someone to carry for you – is illegal in most of the world. In the United States, however, surrogacy is state-law controlled. States in which surrogacy is legal include California, Illinois, and Massachusetts.
  • In New York, for example, it is illegal for a state resident to be compensated as a surrogate. A resident of New York who is looking for a carrier, on the other hand, can always engage residents of a state in which surrogacy is legal.

What is the difference between ‘Traditional’ and ‘Gestational’ surrogacy?

  • Traditional surrogacy is used to describe a situation in which the carrier or surrogate is using her own egg.
  • Gestational surrogacy is the term used when the carrier or surrogate has no genetic relationship to the child.

What makes a good surrogate?

  • Ideal carrier candidates are generally middle-class women who have had problem-free pregnancies and have the full support of a husband or partner.

If you would like to learn more about becoming a surrogate be sure to check out our surrogacy FAQ,

 

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ASRM Guidelines on Egg Donor Compensation Challenged in Lawsuit
Posted On May 10th, 2011

We refer throughout our site (see Conceiving With Donor Eggs) and on our blog to the ASRM’s [American Society for Reproductive Medicine] guidelines for egg donor compensation, first established in the year 2000 and restated in 2007.  Among other recommendations, they claim that egg donor compensation over $10,000 is, in their estimation, “inappropriate.”  Any member of the ASRM, that is, any legitimate IVF (in vitro fertilization) clinic or egg donation agency in this country, must abide by these guidelines in order to maintain their ASRM membership status. Therefore these guidelines have actually served as mandates; reputable agencies and IVF clinics have followed them, unchanged, for the past eleven years.

In a class action lawsuit filed in April 2011 in California, an egg donor has claimed the ASRM’s compensation cap illegal under the Sherman Act, accusing IVF clinics and agencies of restraint of trade and price fixing. The ASRM sent notice to its members today announcing that it has selected counsel and is beginning work on its defense.

We are eager to see how it is resolved.

 

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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,

 

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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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