SURROGATE MOTHERS Advocates urge Pa. Legislature to take a hands-off approach

About 22,000 babies have been born in the last three decades via surrogacy.
PITTSBURGH (AP) -- The state's family laws dictate how long couples can be separated before they are divorced, what names can appear on an adopted child's birth certificate and how old someone must be to get married.
But on the issue of child surrogacy, the state doesn't get involved, leaving judges to interpret how Pennsylvania family law might apply to disputes in surrogacy cases. That's what happened last month in Erie County, where a judge gave a surrogate mother custody of three babies.
Though the judge appealed to the Legislature to take a stand, surrogacy advocates argue for a hands-off approach.
"If it's not broken, don't fix it," said Lawrence Kalikow, a suburban Philadelphia lawyer who has dealt with surrogacy cases for 12 years and whose 8-year-old son was born using a surrogate. The Erie case is unique and not representative of the thousands of surrogacy arrangements that work each year, he said.
Erie County case
Last month, Erie County Judge Shad Connelly awarded custody to surrogate Danielle Bimber, 29, of Corry. Through Surrogate Mothers Inc. of Monrovia, Ind., Bimber agreed to a surrogacy arrangement with a man identified in court records as J.F. She was implanted with donated eggs fertilized with his sperm and gave birth to triplets Nov. 19.
But when J.F. and his fiancee didn't come to the hospital to take the babies home, Bimber took them and successfully sought custody. J.F. has appealed.
About 22,000 babies have been born through surrogacy in the United States since the mid-1970s, based on feedback from clinics, families and independent arrangements, said Shirley Zager, of Gurnee, Ill., who has worked with the Organization of Parents Through Surrogacy and started her own agency, Parenting Partners Inc. She has overseen the arrangement of 10 successful surrogacies, and said six more babies are on the way.
There are no federal, state or private agencies that track surrogate births.
Zager, whose daughter was born in 1987 through the use of a surrogate, said knowledgeable attorneys and agencies have initiated surrogacy arrangements that work in Pennsylvania and other states without laws and there's no need to legislate the process.
"What you have is a case that just didn't go right," Zager said.
Seeking guidance
In his ruling, Judge Connelly appealed to state lawmakers for guidance.
"It is additionally the court's hope that the Legislature will address surrogacy matters in Pennsylvania to prevent cases like this one from appearing before the courts without statutory guidance," Connelly said.
Steve Litz, director of Surrogate Mothers Inc., said he has arranged many surrogacy cases over 20 years and nothing like this has ever happened. He said he hasn't spoken to his client, J.F., for weeks.
"There's no question that this is not a failed surrogacy. It's failed parenting," Litz said. "While I have no problem with legislatures addressing surrogacy, they can't and they shouldn't do it through knee-jerk opinions that ask the legislature to get involved."
The National Conference of Commissioners on Uniform State Laws, a Chicago group that helps legislatures draft bills, has offered two acts to give guidance to states considering surrogacy, said John McCabe, the group's legal counsel. Only North Dakota and Virginia adopted the acts.
"To a degree, surrogacy is an adjunct to adoption," McCabe said. "What you're doing here is creating an adoption of a child who has not yet been conceived."
In most surrogacy cases, the intended parents are married and seek a court order before the baby's birth declaring them the parents. This wasn't true in the Erie case.