Canadian LGBTQ Families and Assisted Reproduction

Posted by Pete Shanks October 9, 2013
Biopolitical Times

"Pride and Joy" is a series in six parts, plus ancillaries, by Natalie Stechyson that focuses on "the emerging world of gay parenthood and surrogacy" in Canada — and abroad. It's the product of her year as a Michelle Lang fellow; the award commemorates the first Canadian journalist to die in the War in Afghanistan.

Fellows spend a year learning their trade, on regular salary, at Postmedia News and the Calgary Herald, and also are encouraged to focus on a special project. Stechyson is the third fellow, and her project was published in September. The Leader-Post (part of the same conglomerate), where the series is hosted, has limited free access, and a 99-cent introductory offer if you want to read more than five pages. The series home page is here and a video introduction here.

The reports include photos, snippets of audio, and video (some pages come to noisy life), but are primarily solid, empathetic journalism. There are facts and statistics, and a video Q&A with a lawyer who specializes in reproduction issues and has pointed comments about the legal inconsistencies across provincial borders. Most of all, there are touching stories about various families trying in various ways to have children.

Part 4 of the series, Womb for Hire, focuses on surrogacy in Cancun, Mexico. Paid surrogacy is illegal in Canada, as are gamete sales and the use of sperm from sexually active gay men, and medical tourism companies such as US-based Planet Hospital are filling the commercial void. Of course, they charge for it: the surrogacy process in Mexico generally runs about $42,000, of which $12,000 goes to the surrogate. And then there are extras: $6,000 for sex selection; $9,000 and up for donors with specified qualifications (height, Ph.D, caucasian), plus travel and expenses.

If the sperm provider has HIV, there is a supplementary charge of $15,000, of which $6,000 goes to the surrogate. Chances of transmission should be very small if proper precautions are taken, and the semen is processed in Los Angeles before being flown to Cancun, but Dr. Mathias Gysler, the head of the Canadian Fertility and Andrology Society asks pointedly:

Why would you pay someone extra money for taking on a risk if there's supposed to be no risk?

Stechyson included this in her report, and also a fairly soft video interview with Planet Hospital's CEO Rudy Rupack, who was raised in Calgary and opened the Cancun site specifically for the US and Canadian markets. He claims that the Mexican surrogates are being paid about half as much as their U.S. counterparts, while Mexican Walmart cashiers make only a quarter of what U.S. cashiers do; so, no exploitation at all, in his view. The reporter raises a metaphorical eyebrow from time to time but lets him speak.

Other parts of the series include:

Ten years from now, this series will likely seem quaint. Let's hope that national and international legislative reform will curb the abuses while helping people to build their own kind of families.

Previously on Biopolitical Times: