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Group says surrogacy bill allows for 'baby selling'
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Follow local news on TwitterAs a Senate floor debate approaches, one group Tuesday criticized legislation that would establish requirements for surrogate mother agreements, saying Minnesota was about to "legalize the selling of babies."
The Minnesota Family Council used the stories of three surrogate mothers at a Capitol news conference in an attempt to build opposition to the legislation, which could get a Senate floor vote as early as Thursday. Advocates for the legislation, including Sen. Linda Higgins, DFL-Minneapolis, the chief Senate author, countered that the proposal would reliably establish the legal parentage of children born through such agreements and "minimize the few negative situations" that inevitably occur.
Under a surrogate mother agreement, a woman contracts to carry and deliver a child for someone else.
Tangy Lambert, a 28-year-old surrogate mother from Buffalo, urged legislators to vote against the proposal, and the council said its passage would encourage the creation of "designer babies" and did not address the rights of children.
"I was financially vulnerable" said Lambert, who said she was paid $20,000 to be inseminated. "I now live with the decision and I will regret it forever."
While she said the money she was paid helped temporarily, Lambert said she felt pressured to sign the agreement.
Another surrogate mother, Barbara Kroushl, who said she was paid $22,000 six years ago, compared what she went through to prostitution. "I prostituted myself," she said. "Why then is it perfectly legal for a woman to rent out the womb for nine months, but illegal for her to rent out the vagina by the hour?"
Supporters of the proposal, who held their own news conference moments afterward, said Lambert's story was evidence that the legislation was needed. "Basically, anybody can do anything," said Rep. Kathy Tingelstad, R-Andover, the chief House author of the proposal.
The House proposal would, among other things, legally clarify that a child born through such an agreement is the child of the intended parents at birth, and require that the gestational carrier must be at least 21 years old. The legislation would also require that the surrogate must be the mother of at least one child and have both a medical and mental-health evaluation.
The surrogate mother, the proposal adds, must have her own legal counsel and have a written agreement in place before medical procedures begin.
"People who go through this now really need to have some standards set in place," said Higgins, who said she anticipates the issue to be discussed at length on the Senate floor. She said the criticism from the Minnesota Family Council was predictable, and said comparing surrogate mothers to prostitutes was "just outrageous."
Greg Troy, an adoption attorney who stood alongside the surrogate mothers, said the legislation represents a "dramatic change" in public policy and that even should the proposal become law, surrogate motherhood would not have the oversight found in the adoption process.
Mike Kaszuba • 612-673-4388
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