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Title: Surrogate mom opens business in Oregon
Source:
katu.com
URL Source: http://www.katu.com/news/local/104901424.html
Published: Oct 13, 2010
Author: CHERYLL A. BORGAARD
Post Date: 2010-10-13 23:00:38 by Ferret Mike
Keywords: None
Views: 157
Comments: 1
LONGVIEW, Wash. (AP) — Tina Franklin has given birth to 10 babies, but only three of them are her own. The other seven, she's willingly handed over to other parents. Franklin, 37, has been a surrogate mother four times, carrying a set of twins, a set of triplets and two single pregnancies for other people. She's also matched up five couples with other surrogates. She's now using her experience to give birth to a new business. Last month, she opened Oregon Surrogacy Center in downtown Rainier. She already has had a number of inquiries, both from potential surrogates and from parents, she said last week. She and her husband started discussing surrogacy in 2002. "My husband and I are done having children. One day I woke up and thought, 'Am I really not going to be pregnant again?'" she said during the interview. "I love being pregnant, and I had good, healthy pregnancies," said Franklin, whose children are 18, 14 and 8. "To be able to help someone else have a child and to be pregnant yourself, you feel like the most important person in the world. You're giving them some hope." Franklin and the surrogates she connects to potential parents are known as gestational surrogates, meaning the egg or eggs fertilized for the pregnancy did not come from their bodies. "A gestational surrogate has no biological ties to the child or children they're carrying," she said. Franklin usually has 10 to 12 women on her list of prospective surrogates, who are free to be listed with other agencies besides hers, she said. Franklin's application for surrogates is "extremely thick and thorough," she said. They must be 21 to 40 years old, had a previous healthy pregnancy and delivery, be drug-free and STD-free, have a stable living environment and their husband or partner must be supportive. Surrogates also are psychologically screened, driving records and criminal backgrounds are checked and they cannot be receiving welfare, food stamps or other government assistance. Although she lives in Washington, Franklin set up her business in Oregon, where it is legal to compensate a surrogate for carrying the baby or babies. Washington law prohibits surrogacy contracts for payment except for actual medical expenses and attorney fees. (During Washington's last session, the House of Representatives passed legislation in February to allow payment to gestational surrogates, but the bill failed to pass the Senate.) Religious groups, bioethicists and others have raised a host of questions about surrogacy, particularly over whether it is ethical for surrogates to be paid and whether surrogate mothers can indeed avoid maternal attachment to the child they bear. Franklin has never encountered any hostility and says she's providing a service to those who are desperate for children. "I feel that every person that wants to parent a child should have that right, that opportunity, whatever means they need to do," Franklin said. "We're fortunate to have the technology if the only way to become a parent is surrogacy. First-time surrogates can expect to get $18,000 to $20,000. A third-time surrogate can get $30,000 and up, earning more because they have proven to have successful pregnancies, Franklin said. In the case of multiples, the surrogate receives additional payments of $2,000 for each baby delivered. In addition, the intended parents pay for the surrogate's medical insurance and expenses, legal fees and psychological counseling, if needed. According to Franklin's website, costs can range from $60,000 to $110,000, "the worst-case scenario." "The money is a benefit definitely, but most of (the surrogates) are very willing and helpful people," she said. "I've never had a surrogate come and say to me 'I'm in it for the money.' " Franklin charges a $4,500 fee to act as a liaison between the surrogate mother, intended parents and fertility clinic and to help arrange the other services. Being a gestational surrogate is not just sitting back and providing a womb, Franklin said. "You have to prepare your body, there are lots of medications. They shut your ovaries off and coordinate your (menstrual) cycle with the intended donor," she said. "There are daily shots, pills, ultrasounds. It's not just one appointment; it can be six, seven appointments leading up to the transfer (of embryos). After the transfer, you still have to stay on medication and have more ultrasounds and blood work." Julie Shaw of Portland is one of Franklin's surrogates. The 27-year-old student has an 8-year-old boy and a 3-year-old girl. She's carrying twins for a Eugene couple, making this her first surrogacy. She chose to be a surrogate because "my pregnancies were all healthy, and my children are all healthy and there are people out there who aren't as fortunate," she said. Family support is crucial, Shaw said. She said she and her husband of nine years had been talking for "over a year" before he was convinced. "I'm really detaching myself psychologically because they're not biologically mine. And I've been honest with the kids from the very start. Our daughter is getting attached to the babies, but she knows (the intended parents) and that the twins are their babies," Shaw added. Franklin's first surrogate pregnancy was in 2003. She carried twins — a boy and a girl - for a couple in New York. The woman had had 11 miscarriages before they met Franklin. "She could get pregnant, she just couldn't carry them to term," Franklin said. The triplets were for a gay couple in Australia. Sperm from both men were used to fertilize donated eggs, and embryos from both fertilizations were transferred to Franklin's uterus. The birth of the two boys and girl was Franklin's only C-section delivery, and it also was the only time she supplied breast milk to her surrogate babies. "I pumped milk for the triplets because one of the babies wasn't doing as well," she said. Three years ago, Franklin carried a girl for a man who lives in Barcelona, Spain — Xabier Gil, a physical trainer for a soccer team. He was 34 when his daughter, Brooke, was born. In an e-mail, Gil said he wanted to be a father, but had no prospects for a partner at the time. He said he also feared that if the relationship were to end, he wouldn't be able to be with the child full-time. So he opted to become a single father. Voters in Spain have banned surrogacy, so Gil contacted an agency in the U.S., which put him in contact with Franklin. "We had a very special relation since the first day we talk," Gil wrote. "There were several reasons to select her — her experience, her responsibility. ... She transmitted me confidence." Gil said he has no regrets about the surrogacy arrangement with Franklin. "Today, I say that my baby means all in my life. ... It has been the best decision I have ever took and a great experience." Franklin's last surrogacy was in February and will be her last — "It's a personal choice," she said. She said she'll continue to keep in touch with the seven babies she gave birth to for other parents. "I consider them part of my family, but you put yourself in that mindset that the baby is not yours, it's going to another family," she said. "I love them, but I look at them with a niece or nephew kind of love." Information from: The Daily News Copyright 2010 The Associated Press.
Tina Franklin opened the Oregon Surrogacy Center last month because it's legal to compensate surrogate mothers in Oregon, but not Washington. (AP Photo, The Daily News, Roger Werth)
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#1. To: All, Nebuchadnezzar (#0)
Wow dude, here is a business you should invest in.
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