Letters to the Editor
-
Risks of surrogacy
The LA Times recently ran an article about two gay men who tried to have children using one of their sisters as a surrogate. She gave birth to twins at 24 weeks and they both died after a week in the NICU. She was emotionally devastated by the experience--felt as if she'd failed her brother. Also, the medical bills totalled $125,000, all of it paid for by her HUSBAND'S health insurance.
Surrogacy carries major risks, particularly when IVF is involved. As many as 25% of pregnancies conceived through IVF are multiple pregnancies (twins, triplets or greater), and as many as 53% of those pregnancies end prematurely.
Plus there's a good chance the LW won't be able to get pregnant. The odds of getting pregnant through one cycle of IVF are only 25% and the odds of getting pregnant after multiple cycles is only 40%. The cost per cycle averages $10,000 so the sister and her husband could nearly bankrupt themselves and still end up with no child.
The LW's husband is not being selfish in opposing this. If something goes wrong with the pregnancy, he and his wife will literally be footing the bill. Plus his wife is 40 and there are many more risks to her health in being pregnant than there would be to a younger woman. Cary was way off in his answer.