legislation

California is a fantastic place to experience surrogacy. Women can become a parent by going to a sperm bank and undergoing artificial insemination. Men use a surrogate, either through artificial insemination or through two women, one to donate an egg, and the other to serve as surrogate.

Surrogacy can be difficult in many parts of the world. France and Germany have banned it, and the Vatican prohibits surrogate motherhood - even for straight couples - saying that reproductive technology tempts man "to go beyond the limits of a reasonable dominion over nature." While the U.S. is more progressive than some other countries, many states still prohibit surrogacy for gays and lesbians.

State Senator Gloria Negrete McLeod (D-Chino) intends to introduce a measure that will establish accredidation standards and guidelines for the operation of fertility clinics. The intent is to better protect the public because of the increasing number of surgical procedures being performed outside of the walls of a hospital.

Well, welcome to our Friday Legal Updates (TGIF). We have quite a bit of news out there from this week, so enjoy each one, and please comment to your heart’s desire.

Wisconsin – Woman Charged with Unauthorized Adoption. A Missouri woman faces a felony child abduction charge in Wisconsin where she's accused of buying a baby from a couple for $6,000.

A. Missouri – it appears that the Missouri legislature, headed by Cynthia Davis. In her bill (HB355) she is attempting to ban all anonymous donation (egg and sperm) in Missouri and give all donor-conceived offspring the right to access the donor’s identity at age 21. In fact, she wants the child’s birth certificate reflect the biological parent’s name (yes, she called the donor a parent) and the donor parent’s name as well. She is not intending to create any legal relationship between donors and the offspring, but the use of the word PARENT is extremely disturbing.

The Miami Herald reports that a Monroe Circuit Court judge has ruled Florida's 31-year-old gay adoption ban ''unconstitutional'' in an order that allows an openly gay Key West foster parent to adopt a teenage boy he has raised since 2001.

Declaring the adoption to be in the boy's ''best interest,'' Circuit Judge David J. Audlin Jr. said the Florida law forbidding gay people from adopting children is contrary to the state Constitution because it singles out a group for punishment.

The Washington Blade reports on the results of a recent poll conducted by City University of New York’s Hunter College. The poll asked if the U.S. Constitution bans same-sex marriage, whether gays can serve openly in the U.S. military, whether same-sex marriages were legal in the respondent’s state, and if there’s a federal law barring the firing of workers based on their sexual orientation.

Only 38 percent of poll respondents answered all four questions correctly.