Talk about a lawsuit waiting to happen! Louisiana is poised to pass a bill that would permit altruistic surrogacy under strictly limited circumstances. From Jennifer Lahl’s piece on it over at the Center for Bioethics and Culture:
This bill will allow only altruistic surrogacy between married heterosexual couples who need a surrogate for medical reasons (not for social or lifestyle choice). The conservative right wants only married moms and dads with the help of a benevolent “third-party” to have babies.
The bill allows for no gamete donation, meaning the husband’s sperm and the wife’s eggs must be used; only the womb can be borrowed—not paid for—so that the “gift” of life is given.
Don’t legislators pay any attention to what is going on around them? States can’t limit reproductive services–nor tailor domestic relations statutes for the exclusive benefit of–heterosexual married couples anymore.
As soon as the law goes into effect a gay, unmarried couple, and/or single person will sue the hell out of Louisiana–cheered on by the media and powerful legal and political advocacy groups.
I think that suit will win. The only question in my mind is whether that will kill all surrogacy in LA, or whether it would require it to be available to one and all, come what may. I suspect the latter.
If LA legislators want to prevent surrogacy from being available to those beyond married heterosexuals, this bill should not go into law. If they want it widely available–which I suspect given a commercial surrogacy bill was vetoed last year–but don’t want to take political responsibility, this is the right way to do it.