A push for surrogacy in New York

An influential state advisory panel has recommended that New York do away with its decades-old ban on women serving as paid childbirth surrogates. The recommendation issued by the Health Department’s Task Force on Life and the Laws is being hailed as a watershed development by advocates for gay couples and others struggling with infertility who have been asking for years to change the law.

via NYDailyNews.com

“I think it is a major step forward for our efforts to legalize commercial surrogacy agreements,” said Democratic State Sen. Brad Hoylman (pictured), who along with his husband David Sigal, has two children born to out-of-state surrogates.

In its report, the task force cited both the cultural changes and advances in reproductive medical science — especially in vitro fertilization — since the state first prohibited surrogacy arrangements in 1992. It also noted the 2011 law that legalized same sex marriage in New York.

New York is currently one of only six states that ban or place restrictions on gestational surrogacy agreements, the task force’s latest report notes.

“Equity must be a driving principle if all families are to enjoy the opportunity to welcome children into their family,” the report stated. “Gestational surrogacy affords LGBT families an important opportunity to have children.”

Image via Babble