Media Contact: Rick Moore
415-314-8952
rmoore.rockway@alliant.edu

Research Worth Watching – from Rockway Institute

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE 

April 23, 2008
 
Rockway faculty published on lesbian/gay parenting via surrogacy or alternative insemination

Rockway senior research scholar Valory Mitchell, PhD and founding executive director Robert-Jay Green, PhD, have written a peer-reviewed journal article discussing the issues facing same-sex couples using alternative insemination or surrogacy. It was published in The Journal of GLBT Family Studies (Vol. 3, No. 2/3, 2007, pp. 81-104). The article also was published simultaneously as a chapter in Gay and Lesbian Parenting: New Directions, edited by Fiona Tasker and Jerry Bigner (Haworth Press, 2007). Both authors are experts in same-sex couple research, lesbian/gay parenting research, and couple/family therapy with lesbian and gay populations.

“Different Storks for Different Folks” discusses the issues facing the growing number of lesbian couples who are choosing alternative insemination of one partner; and a growing number of gay male couples who are choosing gestational surrogacy (fertilizing an egg contributed by one woman and arranging with a different woman to carry the fetus until birth).  

These options carry with them many challenges that test the individual, couple, familial, and societal understandings of the family’s legal and psychological legitimacy.  Issues involve:

• Which partner will contribute genetically to the creation of the baby?
• Where will the other half of the genetic material come from?
• What will be the relationship (if any) of the commercial sperm or egg donor to the child in the future?
• Does “psychological co-creation” of a baby lead to equivalent bonding with the child after birth for the two intended parents, even though only one of them contributed genetic material?
• After birth, which adult(s) will have legal custody?
• If the non-biological lesbian/gay co-parent is unable to adopt the child through a second-parent adoption, does this legal ambiguity affect the relationship between child and co-parent?
• What will the parents tell their families of origin? Their friends? Their co-workers? Their neighbors?  Their pediatricians? Their children’s school systems later?  And what sorts of reactions do the parents and child typically encounter?
• What will the parents tell the child about her or his origins as the child grows up?  And will the child have an opportunity to meet the non-parenting egg donor, surrogate, or sperm donor?

Unlike most heterosexual couples who view surrogacy as a last resort, Mitchell and Green write that many same-sex couples embrace medically assisted reproductive technologies as their most desirable entry to parenthood. “This new frontier is the leading edge of a revolution in parenting and in vitro fertilization (IVF) procedures that is broadening procreative horizons for the entire society,” said Green. “As in so many other areas of American life, the gay community is at the frontier in finding creative solutions to the more general problem of a couple’s inability to conceive children and to challenges of raising children in nontraditional family configurations—when the typical married mom and dad family is not in the cards.”

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You can contact Dr. Mitchell at vmitchell@alliant.edu or Dr. Green at rjgreen@alliant.edu.  For a copy of the article or to arrange telephone or broadcast media interviews, contact Rick Moore at the Rockway Institute, rmoore.rockway@alliant.edu, Tel. 415-314-8952.

About Rockway Institute: The nonpartisan Rockway Institute promotes scientific and professional expertise to counter antigay prejudice and improve public policies affecting lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people.  The Institute’s view is that public opinion, policies, and programs should be shaped by the facts about LGBT lives, not by political ideology.  A primary goal is to organize the most knowledgeable social scientists, mental health professionals, and physicians in the United States to provide accurate information about LGBT issues to the media, legislatures, and the courts.  The Institute also conducts targeted research projects to address the nation’s most pressing LGBT public policy concerns.     
Website: www.rockwayinstitute.org