Surrogacy

Americans have long gone to China to adopt babies. In a twist, Chinese couples are now coming here to become parents — through surrogacy. China does not permit surrogate parenting, but that country's rising affluence has given many couples the option of coming to U.S. surrogacy clinics. California, with its large Chinese American community and its courts' liberal attitude toward surrogacy, is a prime destination. Jerry Zhu and Grace Sun of Beijing have so far saved $60,000 toward the expected $100,000 cost of surrogate birth.

Beyoncé is stripping down and baring it all in a refreshing way in her March interview with Vogue , in which she gushes about her baby girl Blue Ivy, childbirth, work and being Mrs. Jay-Z. Though the interview for the mag's March issue happened before the flurry of lip-synch-gate and her eye-popping Super Bowl Halftime Show performance, the 31-year-old gave candid responses to interviewer Jason Gay, who was taken by the show that has become her life and the woman in that starring role.

BERKELEY, Calif. - Cheryl Cohen Greene likes to spend weekends close to home with her husband, Bob, a former postal worker. Often, they go hiking in the Berkeley Hills that surround their neighborhood, or watch movies in the living room of their modest duplex. At 68, Greene is trim for her age and says she'd lose 10 pounds if she didn't love food so much. She's a devoted grandmother who frequently visits with her two children and grandchildren. No one would guess that more than 900 people have paid to have sex with her. Greene has worked as a surrogate partner therapist for 40 years.

BERKELEY, Calif. - Cheryl Cohen Greene likes to spend weekends close to home with her husband, Bob, a former postal worker. Often, they go hiking in the Berkeley Hills that surround their neighborhood, or watch movies in the living room of their modest duplex. At 68, Greene is trim for her age and says she'd lose 10 pounds if she didn't love food so much. She's a devoted grandmother who frequently visits with her two children and grandchildren. No one would guess that more than 900 people have paid to have sex with her. Greene has worked as a surrogate partner therapist for 40 years.

Your editorial "Kramer vs. Kramer vs. Somebody Else" (April 22) brings to light the increased number of players in the messy surrogate battles facing our extremely backlogged court systems. Surrogacy has been trouble for our courts from the beginning. The fight for custody in any case is unfair because of the age of the "victim," the child, and because the child cannot state his/her opinion. There is a simple solution to the whole problem: either outlaw surrogacy or enforce the irrevocability of the surrogate contract.

Re "Beverly Hills surrogacy firm accused of fraud and theft," March 26 As co-owner of a surrogacy agency, I am saddened by reports of fraudulent behavior. Not everyone is out to take advantage of vulnerable parties. I entered this profession to give back to others, so they could be helped by someone who'd experienced the pain of infertility and who had trusted someone else to carry her child. The process is emotional and complex, and both intended parents and surrogates benefit from the guidance of an understanding, experienced party.

Your story on surrogate motherhood identifying Hagar as an early example should have followed up with the results of that surrogacy ("Surrogate Motherhood: a Wrenching Test of Ethics," Nov. 18). After Ishmael's birth, there was conflict between Sarah and Hagar. Sarah beat Hagar and Hagar fled until commanded by the Lord to return. Ishmael, the son of Hagar and Abraham, did not become a part of Sarah's family as he was taken away by Hagar and became the progenitor of the Arab tribes.

It should have been Myleen and Jan Sjodin's greatest happiness. Their newborn was healthy, they were in exotic India and, following Myleen's uterine cancer, their surrogacy was successful. Instead, the Toronto couple claim, it all turned into a nightmare as the doctor hiked her fees just before the baby was born, hitting them at their psychologically weakest point. She also didn't pay outside hospital bills and tried to use India's infamous bureaucracy to delay their homecoming, the couple say. "We were robbed of our joy as first-time parents," Jan Sjodin said.

Beyoncé is stripping down and baring it all in a refreshing way in her March interview with Vogue , in which she gushes about her baby girl Blue Ivy, childbirth, work and being Mrs. Jay-Z. Though the interview for the mag's March issue happened before the flurry of lip-synch-gate and her eye-popping Super Bowl Halftime Show performance, the 31-year-old gave candid responses to interviewer Jason Gay, who was taken by the show that has become her life and the woman in that starring role.

Americans have long gone to China to adopt babies. In a twist, Chinese couples are now coming here to become parents — through surrogacy. China does not permit surrogate parenting, but that country's rising affluence has given many couples the option of coming to U.S. surrogacy clinics. California, with its large Chinese American community and its courts' liberal attitude toward surrogacy, is a prime destination. Jerry Zhu and Grace Sun of Beijing have so far saved $60,000 toward the expected $100,000 cost of surrogate birth.

It should have been Myleen and Jan Sjodin's greatest happiness. Their newborn was healthy, they were in exotic India and, following Myleen's uterine cancer, their surrogacy was successful. Instead, the Toronto couple claim, it all turned into a nightmare as the doctor hiked her fees just before the baby was born, hitting them at their psychologically weakest point. She also didn't pay outside hospital bills and tried to use India's infamous bureaucracy to delay their homecoming, the couple say. "We were robbed of our joy as first-time parents," Jan Sjodin said.

Dozens of aspiring parents and the women they hired to be surrogate mothers filed a class action lawsuit this week against a Modesto-based surrogacy agency that abruptly shut its doors and stopped returning phone calls, leaving hundreds of thousands of client dollars unaccounted for, according to the allegations.

Re "Beverly Hills surrogacy firm accused of fraud and theft," March 26 As co-owner of a surrogacy agency, I am saddened by reports of fraudulent behavior. Not everyone is out to take advantage of vulnerable parties. I entered this profession to give back to others, so they could be helped by someone who'd experienced the pain of infertility and who had trusted someone else to carry her child. The process is emotional and complex, and both intended parents and surrogates benefit from the guidance of an understanding, experienced party.

Not even jail could keep Nanette Delp out of the surrogacy business. In 2006, she was arrested on allegations that she stole tens of thousands of dollars from couples who had paid her to find women to carry their babies, according to court records. While she was behind bars awaiting trial in Sacramento, she continued to sign up more couples, using a new business name and a new website, state records show.

For Francisco Egea Cerezuela and his wife, the answer to their dream of having a child was found on the Internet: a Beverly Hills surrogacy and egg-donor agency called B Coming. Surrogacy is illegal in their country, Spain, as it is throughout much of the world. In 2007, they got a baby in the United States -- but at a high cost. B Coming was supposed to use a $90,000 deposit to compensate the surrogate and the doctor, the couple claimed in a lawsuit filed in December.

Montana Gov. Marc Racicot went to Miami. Former Sen. Bob Dole (R-Kan.) went to Broward County. Rep. Stephen E. Buyer (R-Ind.) went to Palm Beach County. The Bush campaign and the Republican National Committee have dispatched a small army of big guns to Florida to press their case against hand recounts of the disputed presidential election. So many members of Congress have volunteered, said Rep. Howard P. "Buck" McKeon (R-Santa Clarita), that the campaign of George W.

Here in the '90s, everyone seems to be having babies: Infertile couples. Homosexual couples. Transsexuals. Even dead people. Only a few months ago, a retired Anaheim couple sought to grant their dead daughter's wish to leave them a grandchild. They hired a surrogate to carry embryos their daughter bequeathed them after she learned she was dying from leukemia and had some of her eggs fertilized with sperm her father helped her purchase from a Westwood sperm bank.