Bill would let parents-to-be pay surrogates

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Dan Shih, left, and Ted MacGovern, both 39, found surrogates to give birth to their daughters (from left), Madeline, 3, and Cassandra and Valerie, 2-month-old twins.

Four years ago, Tiffany Sparks-Keeney was diagnosed with a medical condition that doctors said would make it unsafe for her to bear children.

The news came as a wretched gut punch for the Bellevue woman, who had always wanted "a house full of kids."

Once the pain of her loss eased, Sparks-Keeney and her husband, Aaron Keeney, began exploring alternatives — first adoption and then whether there were family or friends who might bear a child for them.

In the end, they turned to a stranger in Oregon, after learning what many Washington couples have come to understand: It's illegal here to pay someone to bear your child.

Legislation approved 57-41 in the House and scheduled for a hearing in the Senate on Tuesday would legalize compensated surrogacy in Washington state. The change would benefit an untold number of intended parents — couples as well as individuals, some gay, many straight.

While some now get around the state's ban on compensated surrogacy by asking relatives or friends to carry their child, others either travel out of state or make what sometimes are illegal arrangements in this one.

"This takes a practice that is occurring out of state and underground in our state ... and moves it to a place where there's more protection for the intended parents, the surrogate and the children being born," said the bill's sponsor, Rep. Jamie Pedersen, D-Seattle.

Seattle attorney Dan Shih and his partner, Ted MacGovern, are parents of a 3-year-old girl and twin baby girls born of two surrogates in California.

"We thought we had considered all the things two men wanting to do this would need: a surrogate, an egg donor, the right doctors, the right lawyers," Shih said.

"It turns out there was a lot more. The agency insisted on a psychologist ... to make sure everyone was on the same page."

Surrogacy isn't cheap; the cost can range up to $100,000 or more — depending on location and services. And "every expense was covered by us — lost wages; all the medical cost and travel costs," Shih said.

Source: The Seattle Times