Surrogacy gives birth to new industry in Oregon

There is a little-known but fast-emerging industry in Oregon: international surrogacy. In the past year and a half, couples from around the world looking for surrogate gestational carriers to bear their children have discovered Oregon, with its liberal surrogate laws and highly rated reproductive medicine clinics.

International interest in Oregon surrogates starts with the sophistication of the local assisted reproduction clinics. National data for all clinics show a 56 percent rate of live births from eggs artificially implanted using in vitro fertilization.

The clinic Oregon Reproductive Medicine‘s success rate is among the nation’s best at 73 percent, and the two other local clinics also score well. According to data released by Oregon Reproductive Medicine, 85 percent of its surrogate implantation yields births. A few years ago, before recent technological advances, those numbers were much lower.

The majority of the Northwest Surrogacy Center‘s international clients are from France and Israel. Almost all of the clients from those countries are gay male couples, for whom adoption is often not an option. France doesn’t allow surrogate parenting, and Israel’s laws are very restrictive, yet both countries have large populations of openly gay men who want to be parents

[via Portland Tribune]