U.S. enters era of paid surrogate motherhood

Press, 29 December 1980, Page 17

U.S. enters era of paid surrogate motherhood

"• •. By •••.' ■

GRAHAM STEWART

NZPA-Reuter Chicago When Elizabeth Kane gave, birth to a boy for a couple; she had never met she be-1 came the first paid surrogate, mother in the United States; and set a new trend in par-; enthood. i , . . , . « - . The Illinois housewife,] aged 38, received between $5OOO and 'slo,ooo to bear the baby for a the Kentucky couple, who could* not • have children of their own because the woman’s fallopian tubes were blocked. But Elizabeth Kane, Which .is not her real name, said that she did it for love, not money. *T already had three children and this woman couldn’t have any,” she said. . I felt for her.’You have to give, youGhave to. share?’•. Mrs Kane said that the money had gone into a. trust fund . to: .educate, her own children, who .are aged to. 11; and four. \ I The clinic, in, Louisville, Kentucky.. Mrs JKatr gave birth'; bn. November 9 ■now-has about. 100 surrogate

mothers in various stages .of pregnancy. A receptionist at the clinic said, “We have had many women call up offering to I be surrogate mothers and we I have had lots of calls from ! couples interested in getting I surrogate mothers.” ! Kentucky is one of the few American states where paying a surrogate mother is I legal. Many states prohibit i buying infants - for adoption :but a black market still flourishes 1 because waiting lists Tor adoption are so long. I « Mrs Kane responded to a newspaper advertisement i placed bv. the clinic.’, After ] medical and psychiatric tests ; she signed a contract to hand her baby over for adoption by the Kentuckv : i couple. She was. then artijfically inseminated; with the sperm of the. husband. ; ■J 7 Mrs Kanets..own husband frWas shocked; sit'first at. the [J idea that she should carry , another' man’s 'child but 'he • eventually agreed and gave , her strong. Slipport during t the.nregriancv,. ; h Mr arid Mrs Kane have :imet the Kentucky couple

only once, behind surgical masks in the delivery room soon after the birth. Mrs Kane said. “Right away the mother came over, hugged me on the delivery table, and said, ‘Thank you for my beautiful boy.’ She had tears in her eyes. “I never once felt it was my. child. The minute I saw hitri in her arms he was her baby.”

Tlie new parents have remained anonymous. They already had an adopted son, aged three, and approached the; clinic about a possible test-tube baby. The father said, "Another adoption .; would have taken six or, seven years. We were getting older and I wanted, if possible, to have a child biologically related to me.” Mrs Kane said that she had now been ostracised by friends in her home town of Pekin (population 32,000), in the farm belt south of Peoriar f ■■- ■ r She also cried when she saw the baby for the last time two days after the birth, but she maintains that ishe has’ no. regrets. .■ a' - '.’’