STORIES

Brook Brown's story
What happens when surrogacy kills you.

Michelle's Reave's story
What happens when a surrogate mother leaves behind a bereft husband and two small children.

Crystal Wilhite's story
What happens when a surrogate mother's death remains undisclosed because of non-disclosure agreements imposed by her surrogacy clinic.

Melissa Cooke's story
What happens when the courts require a surrogate to hand over the triplets she carried to an unfit parent.

Toni Bare's story
What happens when a surrogate mother is abused by commissioning parents.

Kelly Martinez's story
What happens when a surrogate mother almost dies from pregnancy complications.

Jessica Allen's story
What happens when a surrogate mother's own child is taken by mistake by commissioning parents.

Britni Walker's story
What happens when a surrogate mother is ordered by commissioning parents to terminate her pregnancy and refuses.

Jane Doe's story
What happens when a surrogate mother, halfway through her pregnancy, learns that the intended father is a convicted felon with a history of drug and alcohol abuse.

Rachel's story
What happens when a surrogate mother has lasting regrets.

Kylee Kwiatkowski's story
What happens when you, as an egg donor, have a massive stroke one day after your eggs are harvested.

Dr. Jennifer Schneider's story
What happens to a mother when her daughter dies after "donating" her eggs.

David Farnell's story
What happens when a convicted pedophile is allowed by courts to keep a surrogate baby.

Mitsutoki Shigeta's story
What happens when a single 28 year old purchases over 16 children through surrogacy.

Jessica Kern's story
What happens when you learn after a lifetime of deception that you were born through commercial surrogacy.

Jessica Bartholomew's story
What happens when a surrogate child is abandoned after a commissioning parent changes her mind and no longer wants him.

Karen Wixham's story
What happens when a surrogate mother cannot overcome postpartum depression and can't afford therapy.

An Unnamed Australian man's story
What happens when a surrogate father sexually abuses his surrogate twins.

Elle Megan Bell's story
What happens when an egg donor is impaired for life following her egg "donation."

Mark Newton's and Peter Truong's story
What happens when an infant is purchased to be trafficked to pedophiles for sex.

Cassandra Adam's story
What happens when you learn after a lifetime of deception that you were conceived by a gamete donor.

Surrogacy_GetInvolved_Button

“I think commercial surrogacy should be banned completely. They're putting women at risk without even telling them the risks. There is no such thing as informed consent in this situation. There is no way to tell any young woman, so that she could actually understand the risks. The research isn't even being done to determine the risks. There's funding for fertility, but no funding to do research on the risks. It's a multi-billion dollar industry to make designer babies. There is all that funding. But no research on women like me who were surrogates. "

--From Kelly Martinez's story: What happens when a surrogate mother almost dies from pregnancy complications.

Brooke's doctors and the fertility industry surely knew that as a surrogate who had already carried her own three children to term followed by five surrogate babies, Brooke was at high risk of grave injury. But in the end, none of them deemed Brooke's life, and those of the infants she carried, to be worthy of any news coverage or more than the $7,000 raised by GoFundMe to cover the cost of her funeral.

--From Brooke Brown’s Story: What happens when surrogacy kills you.

Right now, young women agreeing to egg donation cannot give informed consent because information about long-term health risks doesn’t exist. It didn’t exist for my daughter who passed away, and it doesn’t exist for anyone now. Until the health consequences are known and understood, it would be unconscionable to legalize commercial surrogacy’ given that it will greatly increase the demand for donated eggs, and risk the lives and health of many more young women.

--From Dr. Schneider’s story: What happens to a mother when her daughter dies after "donating" her eggs.

I don’t think surrogacy should be legal, when even the most common of serious and debilitating health risks isn’t required to be disclosed. I don’t think surrogacy should be legal, when much-needed health care for longer-term pregnancy-related harms is not required or made available. The lives of too many perfectly healthy and fit young mothers and wives are forever compromised or irreparably harmed, not only to their own detriment, but to the detriment of their families who need them. I suffer deeply, every single day, as do my children and my husband. No amount of money was worth this cost to us all.

--From Karen Wixom’s story: What happens when a surrogate mother cannot overcome postpartum depression and can't afford therapy.