Surrogacy Gives Birth to Industry

Jeri Chambers is in the middle of her seventh pregnancy and still enjoying the process.

That's a good thing, since the 34-year-old Chambers is serving as a gestational carrier, or surrogate mother, for the fourth time after delivering three children of her own.

Chambers, who also owns the local Greatest Gift Surrogacy Center, is part of a little-known but fast-emerging industry in Oregon: international surrogacy.

In the past year and a half, couples from around the world looking for surrogate gestational carriers to bear their children have discovered Oregon, with its liberal surrogate laws and highly rated reproductive medicine clinics.

A year ago, Chambers' agency had three international customers. This year, Chambers says, she has had 23 couples from outside the United States who have come to Oregon to have a surrogate carry their children.

John Chally, co-founder of Northwest Surrogacy Center in Northeast Portland, also has seen his international business take off. Chally says about a third of his agency's 36 clients this year are from outside the United States, a significant shift from five years ago, when his...