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• Ruling: Docs Must Impregnate Lesbians and Singles, Too

  The California Supreme Court has ruled that fertility clinics may not turn away clients based on their sexual orientation or marital status. Yes, that's even if the doctors claim helping lesbians or singles become mothers is against their religion. Hallelujah! What's incredible to me is that doctors turned away paying customers in the first place. But with the baby-making business booming, perhaps there was some wiggle room in the bottom line for bigotry.   Read More... Posted Aug 19 2008, 02:05 PM by Madeline Holler with | with 1 comment(s) Filed under: IVF, California, artificial insemination, gay marriage, LA Times, anti-discrimination

• Rudest Question to Ask a Pregnant Woman: Lesbian Edition

  Madeline and her faithful readers have come up with a bevy of rude, ruder, and rudest questions to ask a pregant women.  I can't help but add my two cents with a short but rude list of questions I got during my two pregnancies.    But before I do, let me just say that I am wholeheartedly committed to deepening people's understanding of how LGBT couples become parents.  I know that often times what looks like homophobia is simply misinformation and that, armed with the facts, people are far more likely to be comfortable with and accepting of lesbian and gay families.  But pregnancy brings out the sensitive in all of us, gay or straight, so here are five questions that, in my opinion, should be googled, not asked: Read More... Posted Jun 20 2008, 12:26 PM by Erin White with | with 6 comment(s) Filed under: pregnancy, adoption, IVF, artificial insemination, lesbian and gay families, sperm donors, rude questions

• Pregnancy: It's Not Just for Women Anymore

  An Oregon man has publicly announced that he is five months pregnant with a healthy baby girl. So all of those hypothetical “If men could get pregnant….” statements may get practically tested after all--although somehow I don’t think abortion is going to become a sacrament or maternity leave is going to last for two years for the sake of Thomas Beattie, a transgender man who had to go through nearly ten doctors before he found one who was willing to handle his highly unusual case. Read More... Posted Mar 27 2008, 11:47 AM by Hannah Tennant-Moore with | with 37 comment(s) Filed under: transgender, testosterone, artificial insemination, pregnant man, thomas beattie

• Marry for Love—or Diaper Duty?

  Today, “Marry Him!,” an article by Lori Gottlieb in the March Atlantic Monthly, was emailed to me for the third time by a single, female friend. Since the article became available online recently, it has been circulating like crazy amongst single women in their twenties and thirties, generating either rage, resigned sighs of agreement, or panic. As a single mother of a child she conceived with donor sperm, Gottlieb argues that the idealistic search for a soul mate—oh so important in one’s twenties—seems like a massive mistake when one is living alone at 35, trying to pay the bills and get the diapers changed. Look past his flaws, Gottlieb urges. Passion? Romance? Good conversation? Hot sex? They all pale in comparison to having someone—practically anyone, so long as he’s steady, sane, and able-bodied—to share the bills and child care with.   As a 25-year-old woman who has always wanted to have children and who has zero prospects of making that happen anytime in the near-ish future (at least in the two-happy-parents-who-are-not-on-welfare sort of way), I was Gottlieb’s ideal audience. Read More... Posted Feb 27 2008, 12:53 PM by Hannah Tennant-Moore with | with 11 comment(s) Filed under: marriage, single parenting, artificial insemination, single moms, Lori Gottlieb

• Woman Undergoes Traditional Insemination With Sperm Donor

  It’s a tale as old as time. A sweet girl who loves children grows up to be a sweet nanny who loves children. She dreams of meeting Mr. Right, for whom she’ll bear children. Sweet loving nanny turns 35, panics, and opts to skip Mr. Right. Instead, she searches for Mr. Right Sperm Donor, whom she finds at a U.K. sperm donor website. Mr. RSD agrees to meet. Fertile and anxious, she packs an insemination kit. Across a crowded room, she sees Mr. RSD, who happens to be very attractive.   Read More... Posted Oct 17 2007, 03:02 PM by Madeline Holler with | with 3 comment(s) Filed under: pregnancy, sperm bank, artificial insemination, Madeline Holler, sperm donor

• Dear Men: Sorry, We Can Make Babies Without You. Signed, The Women

  Woohoo!  Okay, men, don't tell me you didn't know this was coming, but apparently you're about to become obsolete: a transplant technique is being devised that grows human cells from bone marrow. There are a number of advantages to this, namely: 1. It avoids the ethical dilemma and the endless debate posed by using embryonic stem cells. (Take that, George Bush!) 2. It's groundbreaking in terms of female infertility. 3. It's also groundbreaking in terms of men, affording men opportunities to become fathers who might not be able to otherwise (if they're rendered sterile by chemotherapy, for instance). 4. Same-sex couples won't need to line up at the sperm bank. Or beg eggs on a street corner. 5. And, well, the whole "men are redundant" thing. Don't get me wrong, I adore men and I certainly don't see them being phased out. At least, not yet. But with this new way developing of conceiving without them, and new vibrators being invented all the time, seriously, what's the point? Ladies, are you with me? Tired of having to put the seat down all the time? Imagine a world where you wouldn't have to...     Posted Apr 14 2007, 02:45 PM by Karen Murphy with | with 1 comment(s) Filed under: Conception, artificial insemination, same-sex couples, stem cells, men

• What To Do When Mommy Gets Inseminated With Some Random Dude's Sperm? Sue, Of Course!

  Of course.  It's what what we sue-happy Americans do, isn't it?  But in the case of the Thomas and Nancy Andrews, it seems that suing the Park Avenue sperm bank that accidentally inseminated Nancy with sperm belonging to someone other than her husband, could do more harm than good - because the insemination resulted in the birth of their 21/2 year-old daughter, Jessica.  Jessica's parents say "While we love Baby Jessica as our own, we are reminded of this terrible mistake each and every time we look at her."  Why?  Because Jessica, born to a white father and a Dominican mother, is black.  DNA tests confirmed that Jessica's father is not Thomas Andrews.  Now the Andrews family has been given permission by a NY judge to sue the sperm bank for malpractice. Through court documents, the Andrews said "We underwent a complex medical procedure for the sole purpose of bearing a child of our own... we were never informed that this type of mishap could occur... this type of mishap is almost unimaginable.  We fear that our daughter will be the object of scorn and ridicule by other children, both in school and as she grows up."  (Ridicule?) They certainly have a case for malpractice, no doubt about it.  I shudder to think about how I'd feel in Nancy Andrews position (betrayed?  confused?  angry?) But what about their daughter?  Her feelings have to be taken into account here.  She is a living, breathing person, being raised in a family that is suing a sperm bank over her skin color.  How's that going to make her feel about herself as she grows up?  If some random white dude's sperm was used in the insemination process, they'd be none the wiser... Is a couple thousand dollars going to be worth the pain they may cause for their little girl down the road?   Posted Mar 23 2007, 11:41 AM by Alisyn with | with 7 comment(s) Filed under: lawsuit, sperm bank, artificial insemination, jessica andrews

• Pope: Ixnay on High-Tech Babymaking

  He just wouldn't be Pope if he didn't feel comfortable getting all up in our uteri, would he? Over the weekend, Pope Benedict spoke out against "designer babies". Subjects of his displeasure included prenatal tests that detect defects or disorders (presumably because they might spur parents to terminate a pregnancy?) and artificial insemination (who knows?). The guy might have a point about prenatal testing to an extent--as our own Karen recently noted. But given the issues that can be resolved much more easily if they are detected prenatally, I'd hesitate to throw this particular baby out with the bathwater. And God only knows what his problem with insemination is. Any thoughts? Posted Feb 27 2007, 07:14 PM by Patti with | with 4 comment(s) Filed under: pregnancy, Designer Babies, prenatal testing, Catholicism, artificial insemination, Pope Benedict