IVF, donor insemination, egg freezing, surrogacy, and adoption all beget their own scenario-specific costs.
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Some of us are single moms-to-be, undergoing expensive donor insemination or donor-sperm IVF.
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L. and E.L," who were raising three children together in Alabama after using donor insemination. "V.
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Donor insemination is a procedure in which sperm is inserted in a woman's vagina in the hopes of getting her pregnant.
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The Tennessee law governing parenting in the case of donor insemination dates back to 1977, and is accordingly stacked in favor of heterosexuals.
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Even after it became clear that the practice was medically simple, donor insemination remained suspect, associated with illegitimacy and tainted by notions of male inadequacy.
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At the time, few outside the lesbian community even considered the prospect of a woman giving birth by donor insemination while sharing her life not with a husband but a wife.
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The New York Times says that the number of babies born using donor insemination is increasing, and cites one estimate of between 30,000 to 60,000 births per year that used sperm donors.
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So few doctors were willing to help lesbians and single mothers conceive with the help of donor insemination that a new bank, the Sperm Bank of California, founded by women, started specializing in that market in 232.
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Other treatments included some 5,600 donor insemination cycles - where donor sperm is placed directly into the womb - largely among patients with a female or no partner, and 1,463 egg freezing cycles by women wishing to have a child later.
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As with similar laws in numerous other states, Tennessee's parenting law was designed to ensure that children born through donor insemination, which was then growing in popularity, would have legal ties to the person intending to operate as the father.
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Studies have indicated that donor insemination mothers show greater emotional involvement with their child, and they enjoy motherhood more than mothers by natural conception and adoption. Compared to mothers by natural conception, donor insemination mothers tend to show higher levels of disciplinary aggression. Studies have indicated that donor insemination fathers express more warmth and emotional involvement than fathers by natural conception and adoption, enjoy fatherhood more, and are less involved in disciplining their adolescent. Some donor insemination parents become overly involved with their children.
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The donor insemination program began at the Feminist Women's Health Center in 1988. The program began because most infertility specialists in the southern United States were only willing to offer their services to married women, leaving single heterosexual women and lesbians alike unable to access fertility treatments. When the FWHC began offering its donor insemination services, it was only one of about a dozen clinics in the entire country to offer these services. In a 1990 profile of the program, an employee of the center noted that only about 5% of the women seeking donor insemination were married, and about a third of the program's clients were lesbians.Downey.
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As a result of this experiment, the merchant's wife gave birth to a son, who became the first known child by donor insemination. The case was not revealed until 1909, when a letter by Addison Davis Hard appeared in the American journal Medical World, highlighting the procedure. (cited in ) Since then, a few doctors began to perform private donor insemination. Such procedures were regarded as intensely private, if not secret, by the parties involved.
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In 2012, about 90% of clients identified as lesbians. In 2014, with fertility services and clinics more widely available, FWHC ended the donor insemination program to refocus efforts and resources on other services.
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PAS held a treatment licence under the Act establishing the HFEA and continued to carry out artificial inseminations under its auspices. Unusually at the time, PAS operated a 'non-discrimination policy' which resulted by the late 1980's in most of the patients of the PAS Donor Insemination Service being women without a male partner i.e. single women or coupled lesbians. PAS never achieved high pregnancy rates with its donor insemination service, its average pregnancy rate being less than 8%.
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In 1954, the Superior Court of Cook County, Illinois granted a husband a divorce because, regardless of the husband's consent, the woman's donor insemination constituted adultery, and that donor insemination was "contrary to public policy and good morals, and considered adultery on the mother's part." The ruling went on to say that, "A child so conceived, was born out of wedlock and therefore illegitimate. As such, it is the child of the mother, and the father has no rights or interest in said child."Doornbos v.
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New Mexico allows single persons to adopt children. The state has no prohibition on adoption by same-sex couples or second-parent adoptions, and as stated, allows those adoptions.Human Rights Campaign: New Mexico Adoption Law , accessed April 9, 2011 Lesbian couples can access in vitro fertilization and donor insemination without regard to their sexual orientation or marital status. State law recognizes the non-genetic, non-gestational mother as a legal parent to a child born via donor insemination, irrespective of the marital status of the parents.
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Smith, to review the case. Lesbian couples have access to fertility treatments and in vitro fertilization. State law recognizes the non-genetic, non-gestational mother as a legal parent to a child born via donor insemination, but only if the parents are married. Surrogacy is highly restricted in Louisiana.
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The Fertile Window or Fertility Window: Chance of fertilization with intercourse for menstrual cycle day relative to ovulation date. a) Schwartz, Daniel, et al. "Donor insemination: conception rate according to cycle day in a series of 821 cycles with a single insemination." Fertility and sterility 31.2 (1979): 226-229.
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The Feminist Women's Health Center offers a variety of sexual and reproductive health care programs, many of which are designed to reach historically underserved populations within the Atlanta community. In addition to providing comprehensive gynecological services, the center was also a leader in offerings trans health services and donor insemination.
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Donor insemination provoked heated public debate. In the United Kingdom, the Archbishop of Canterbury established the first in a long procession of commissions that, over the years, inquired into the practice. It was at first condemned by the Lambeth Conference, which recommended that it be made a criminal offence. A Parliamentary Commission agreed.
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As a result of Obergefell v. Hodges, same-sex couples are permitted to adopt. In addition, lesbian couples can access assisted reproduction services, such as in vitro fertilization. Territory law recognizes the non-genetic, non-gestational mother as a legal parent to a child born via donor insemination, but only if the parents are married.
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This clinic helped conceive 1,500 babies of which Mary Barton's husband, Bertold Weisner, probably fathered about 600. The first successful human pregnancy using frozen sperm was in 1953. "Donor insemination remained virtually unknown to the public until 1954". In that year the first comprehensive account of the process was published in The British Medical Journal.
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In Italy, the Pope declared donor insemination a sin, and proposed that anyone using the procedure be sent to prison. Sperm donation gained popularity in the 1980s and 1990s. In many western countries, sperm donation is now a largely accepted procedure. In the US and elsewhere, there are a large number of sperm banks.
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Per Pavan v. Smith, Arkansas recognizes the non-genetic, non- gestational mother as a legal parent to a child born via donor insemination, but only if the parents are married. In addition, no statute or case law prohibits surrogacy, traditional or gestational. As a result, both are practiced in the state, including by same-sex couples.
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Vermont law permits single LGBT individuals and same-sex couples to petition to adopt.Vermont Adoption Law In addition, lesbian couples have access to in vitro fertilization. State law recognizes the non-genetic, non-gestational mother as a legal parent to a child born via donor insemination, irrespective of the marital status of the parents. Surrogacy is neither expressly prohibited nor permitted in Vermont.
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A birth certificate issued in Rhode Island carries the names of both parents, including same-sex parents.Human Rights Campaign: Rhode Island Adoption Law , accessed March 11, 2011 Lesbian couples have access to in vitro fertilization. State law recognizes the non-genetic, non-gestational mother as a legal parent to a child born via donor insemination. Surrogacy is neither prohibited nor expressly permitted in Rhode Island.
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Once same-sex relationships obtained legal recognition in the state, all of New Hampshire's ten counties began allowing adoption by same-sex couples on the same terms as for opposite-sex couples. New Hampshire law allows any woman to undergo donor insemination. The spouse of a pregnant woman is generally presumed to be the parent of her child.Title XII: Chapter 168-B: Surrogacy NH RSA.
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Washington Blade. p. 28. This film explored same-sex parenting and helped launch a profound cultural shift regarding parenting in the LGBTQ community. Choosing Children showcased six families composed of same-sex parents and children brought into the family through adoption, donor insemination, foster parenting, and through previous relationships. In 1991 Chasnoff directed and produced Deadly Deception: General Electric, Nuclear Weapons and Our Environment.
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Maine law permits single LGBT individuals and same-sex couples, whether married or unmarried, to petition to adopt. Lesbian couples have access to in vitro fertilization. State law recognizes the non-genetic, non- gestational mother as a legal parent to a child born via donor insemination, irrespective of the marital status of the parents. In addition, surrogacy arrangements are legal and recognized in the state.
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Lesbian couples have access to in vitro fertilization and fertility treatments. State law recognizes the non-genetic, non-gestational mother as a legal parent to a child born via donor insemination, but only if the parents are married. Although Iowa does not possess any defined surrogacy laws, courts are generally favorable to couples, different-sex or same-sex, who use the gestational or traditional surrogacy process.
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In the United Kingdom, the Warnock Committee was formed in July 1982 to consider issues of sperm donation and assisted reproduction techniques. Donor insemination was already available in the UK through unregulated clinics such as BPAS. Many of these clinics had started to offer sperm donation before the widespread use of freezing techniques. 'Fresh sperm' was donated to order by donors at the fertile times of patients requiring treatments.
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From the early 1980s BPAS carried out donor insemination treatments initially using fresh sperm which was donated at the required time of the insemination. Donor treatments were anonymous and the identity of donors was protected. In the mid-1980s, following concerns about HIV, sperm which had been frozen and thawed by BPAS was used instead of fresh sperm. This enabled it to be quarantined and the donors re-tested.
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Lesbian couples can access assisted reproduction services, such as in vitro fertilization. State law recognizes the non-genetic, non- gestational mother as a legal parent to a child born via donor insemination, but only if the parents are married. Idaho law does not regulate the practice of surrogacy. State courts have generally been favorable to couples, same-sex or opposite-sex, who have used the gestational or traditional surrogacy process.
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Lesbian couples have access to assisted reproduction services, such as in vitro fertilization. State law recognizes the non-genetic, non-gestational mother as a legal parent to a child born via donor insemination, but only if the parents are married. In September 2017, the Arizona Supreme Court unanimously ruled that same-sex spouses have the same parental rights as opposite-sex spouses under state law. Basing their ruling on Obergefell v.
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Lesbian couples have access to in vitro fertilization. State law recognizes the non-genetic, non-gestational mother as a legal parent to a child born via donor insemination. Initially, the couple had to be either married or in a domestic partnership for the non-biological mother to be automatically recognized. However, a law passed in 2019, and taking effect on 1 January 2020, grants automatic recognition for unmarried couples as well.
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Lesbian couples have access to in vitro fertilization. State law recognizes the non-genetic, non-gestational mother as a legal parent to a child born via donor insemination, but the parents are required to be married. Connecticut law requires the Office of Vital Records to issue birth certificates to intended parents in a gestational surrogacy arrangement. No law prohibits traditional surrogacy, and the practice is thus presumably legal.
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Mary Barton (1 March 1905 – 1991) was a British obstetrician who, in the 1930s, founded one of the first fertility clinics in England to offer donor insemination. Throughout her career, Barton studied infertility and conception. Her pioneering research and practice were inspired by experience as a medical missionary in India, where she saw the harsh treatment of childless women. At the time, infertility was widely believed to be the woman's fault.
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Republican Governor Rick Scott signed the bill into law on June 11 and went into effect on July 1, 2015. Lesbian couples have access to in vitro fertilization. State law recognizes the non-genetic, non-gestational mother as a legal parent to a child born via donor insemination, but only if the parents are married. The Florida Department of Health began automatically recognizing the non-biological mother as a legal parent on May 5, 2016.
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With a few donors it did reach rates of nearly 13% but with most donors the rate was considerably less. The reason for these low success rates was largely due to the method of fertilisation used. PAS ceased to carry out donor insemination treatments at the end of 1996 when it risked insolvency and merged with the BPAS. The clinic at Charlotte Street continued to collect and process sperm samples from donors until October 1997.
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Married same-sex couples are permitted to adopt, and lesbian couples can access assisted reproduction services, such as in vitro fertilization. State law recognizes the non-genetic, non-gestational mother as a legal parent to a child born via donor insemination, irrespective of the marital status of the parents. Wyoming law also does not explicitly prohibit surrogacy. As a result, surrogacy is presumably legal in the state for both opposite-sex and same-sex couples.
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South Dakota permits adoption by single individuals and married same-sex couples.Human Rights Campaign: South Dakota Adoption Law , accessed April 10, 2011 Lesbian couples have access to assisted reproduction services, such as in vitro fertilization. State law recognizes the non-genetic, non-gestational mother as a legal parent to a child born via donor insemination, but the parents are required to be married. Male gay couples may also undertake gestational and traditional surrogacy arrangements.
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For a variety of reasons, some patients had arranged to be artificially inseminated with sperm provided by screened, anonymous donors arranged by Jacobson. In order to preserve the anonymity of the donors, Jacobson explained, he identified them in records using code numbers; only Jacobson was to know their true identities. Investigators found no evidence that any donor program actually existed. Some of Jacobson's patients who had conceived through donor insemination agreed to genetic testing.
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State law permits single LGBT adults and married same-sex couples to petition to adopt. Lesbian couples have access to in vitro fertilization. State law recognizes the non-genetic, non-gestational mother as a legal parent to a child born via donor insemination, but only if the parents are married. In 2015, the Maryland General Assembly passed a law requiring health insurers to offer fertility treatments as a benefit, regardless of a person's sexual orientation.
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Washington state law permits a legally competent adult to petition to adopt without respect to marital status. Same-sex couples can adopt jointly and can arrange second-parent adoptions as well. Lesbian couples are allowed to access in vitro fertilisation.Same Sex Couples Overlake Reproductive Health State law recognizes the non-genetic, non-gestational mother as a legal parent to a child born via donor insemination, irrespective of the marital status of the parents.
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A single LGBT person and same-sex couples can petition to adopt in Colorado. Second-parent adoptions are permitted under state law, though the process is more elaborate and expensive than that required of married couples. Lesbian couples can access assisted reproduction services, such as in vitro fertilization. State law recognizes the non-genetic, non-gestational mother as a legal parent to a child born via donor insemination, but only if the parents are married.
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Married same-sex couples are permitted to adopt, and lesbian couples have access to assisted reproduction services such as in vitro fertilization. State law recognizes the non-genetic, non-gestational mother as a legal parent to a child born via donor insemination, but only if the parents are married. Gestational and traditional surrogacy arrangements are valid and recognized in the state. The state treats different-sex and same-sex couples equally under the same terms and conditions.
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Nebraska permits adoption by same-sex couples and single LGBT individuals.Human Rights Campaign: NebraskaAdoption Law , accessed April 11, 2011 Lesbian couples can access in vitro fertilization. State law recognizes the non-genetic, non-gestational mother as a legal parent to a child born via donor insemination, but only if the parents are married. On August 27, 2013, three same-sex couples filed a lawsuit in state court seeking the right to serve as foster and adoptive parents.
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Montana permits adoption by individuals, and there are no explicit prohibitions on adoption by same-sex couples or on second-parent adoption. Lesbian couples have access to assisted reproduction services, such as in vitro fertilization. State law recognizes the non-genetic, non-gestational mother as a legal parent to a child born via donor insemination, but only if the parents are married. Montana law does not regulate the practice of surrogacy, but courts are generally favorable to the process.
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As for the donor insemination, Jacobson maintained that he had in fact relied on anonymous donors as claimed. He acknowledged using his own sperm on some occasions, when donors failed to show up when needed, and a patient was about to miss a window of opportunity to become pregnant. He could not account for the incident in which his own sperm was used in place of the patient's husband's, other than to suggest cross- contamination in the laboratory.
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Hawaii allows all couples, including same-sex couples, to adopt. Additionally, lesbian couples can access in vitro fertilization (IVF) and artificial insemination treatment. State law recognizes the non-genetic, non-gestational mother as a legal parent to a child born via donor insemination, but only if the parents are married. Surrogacy is legal in Hawaii, as no specific law prohibits it, and courts have ruled in favor of gay male couples using the gestational surrogacy process.
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Gartrell is the Principal Researcher for the US National Longitudinal Lesbian Family Study (NLLFS). The NLLFS follows lesbian mothers and their children who were conceived by donor insemination during the 1980s. The study, which was initiated by Gartrell in 1986, examines the social, psychological, and emotional development of the children as well as the dynamics of planned lesbian families. This is the longest-running and largest prospective investigation of lesbian mothers and their children in the United States.
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This was later repealed and updated with the Status of Children Act 1996 (NSW) which said the same thing, but accounted for a donated ova. The specific wording did not allow the birth mother's female partner to be legally recognised. The Miscellaneous Acts Amendment (Same Sex Relationships) Bill 2008 passed on 4 June 2008 recognises co-mothers as legal parents of children born through donor insemination and provides birth certificates allowing both mums to be recognised. Adoption and surrogacy reforms were not included.
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He was born into a well known East Sussex farming family centred near Rye where he was brought up. His father [Walter Richard] Dick Merricks farmed apples, hops and sheep, and pioneered innovative techniques for bulk apple handling, grassland management, and sheep handling and shearing. He met and subsequently married Olivia Montuschi becoming step- father to the young son of her first marriage. After being diagnosed infertile, he and his wife used donor insemination treatment to conceive their two subsequent children.
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Ohio permits single LGBT individuals, as well as married same-sex couples to adopt. Lesbian couples have access to assisted reproduction services such as in vitro fertilization. State law recognizes the non-genetic, non-gestational mother as a legal parent to a child born via donor insemination, but only if the parents are married. While there are no specific surrogacy laws in Ohio, the courts have ruled that the practice is legal and surrogacy contracts can be recognized as legally valid.
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In the United Kingdom, the British obstetrician Mary Barton founded one of the first fertility clinics to offer donor insemination in the 1930s, with her husband Bertold Wiesner fathering hundreds of offspring. In the 1980s, direct intraperitoneal insemination (DIPI) was occasionally used, where doctors injected sperm into the lower abdomen through a surgical hole or incision, with the intention of letting them find the oocyte at the ovary or after entering the genital tract through the ostium of the fallopian tube.
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Same-sex relationships have not been a legal barrier to adoption or parenting in the state, though only since 2017 has state law reflected that same-sex couples have the same parental rights as heterosexual couples. Lesbian couples are allowed to access assisted reproduction services, such as in vitro fertilisation.Same Sex Couples Overlake Reproductive Health State law recognizes the non-genetic, non- gestational mother as a legal parent to a child born via donor insemination, irrespective of the marital status of the parents. In addition, Nevada permits and recognizes gestational surrogacy arrangements.
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On October 6, 2014, the Supreme Court refused to hear the case, and the hold was lifted. In 2013, Utah's capital, Salt Lake City, and its suburbs had the highest rate — 26 percent — of same-sex couples sharing parenthood, according to an analysis of census data by the Williams Institute at the UCLA School of Law. Lesbian couples have access to in vitro fertilization. State law recognizes the non-genetic, non-gestational mother as a legal parent to a child born via donor insemination, but only if the parents are married.
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'Religious Freedom' Adoption Bill Allowing Discrimination Against LGBTQ Couples Is Dead Lesbian couples have access to assisted reproduction services, such as in vitro fertilization. State law recognizes the non-genetic, non- gestational mother as a legal parent to a child born via donor insemination, irrespective of the marital status of the parents. In addition, North Dakota law explicitly permits gestational surrogacy. This statute also declares that a child born to a gestational surrogate is the child of the intended parents, whether same-sex or different-sex, for all intents and purposes.
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Same-sex couples, whether unmarried or married, may apply to adopt. Lesbian couples have access to assisted reproduction services, such as in vitro fertilization, and state law recognizes the non-genetic, non- gestational mother as a legal parent to a child born via donor insemination, but only if the parents are married. Surrogacy is neither expressly prohibited nor permitted in Oregon. However, courts are generally favorable to surrogacy, which means both the surrogate and the intended parents, including same-sex couples, can pursue a surrogacy arrangement in the state.
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The possibility for lesbian and bisexual women in same-sex relationships (or women without a partner) to become mothers has increased over the past few decades due to technological developments. Modern lesbian parenting (a term that somewhat erases the bisexual case) originated with women who were in heterosexual relationships who later identified as lesbian or bisexual, as changing attitudes provided more acceptance for non-heterosexual relationships. Another way for such women to become mothers is through adopting or foster parenting. There is also the option of self-insemination and clinically assisted donor insemination, forms of artificial insemination.
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BPAS continued to store donor sperm and to carry out treatments until the HFEA came into being in 1993. Although it never carried out treatments under the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act, the BPAS held a storage licence until the end of 1997. In central London, the Pregnancy Advisory Service (PAS), also carried out treatments using donor sperm (ICI, or intracervical inseminations) before the passing of the Act. Established primarily to facilitate abortions after 1968 with a clinic in Rosslyn Road, Twickenham and premises in Fitzroy Square, London, this organisation operated a donor insemination service from its premises in Charlotte Street, London W1.
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Lesbian couples can access in vitro fertilization, and state law recognizes the non-genetic, non-gestational mother as a legal parent to a child born via donor insemination, but only if the parents are married. In addition, Kansas permits and recognizes both gestational and traditional surrogacy contracts, though the latter may result in more legal complications than the former. The state treats same-sex and different-sex couples equally under the same terms and conditions. Kansas law allows adoption agencies to choose not to place children in certain homes if it would violate the agency's religious or moral convictions.
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Doornbos, 23 U.S.L.W. 2308 (Superior Court, Cook County, Ill., December 13, 1954) However, the following year, Georgia became the first state to pass a statute legitimizing children conceived by donor insemination, on the condition that both the husband and wife consented in advance in writing to the procedure. In 1973, the Commissioners on Uniform State Laws, and a year later, the American Bar Association, approved the Uniform Parentage Act. This act provides that if a wife is artificially inseminated with donor semen under a physician's supervision, and with her husband's consent, the husband is legally considered the natural father of the donor inseminated child.
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If a married lesbian couple conceives a child via donor insemination, the non-biological parent is not automatically recognized on the child's birth certificate and must go through an adoption procedure. This is not the case for married heterosexual couples, where the non-biological father is automatically recognized as a legal parent. A bill initiated by Alliance 90/The Greens in June 2018 to rectify this inequality is pending in the Bundestag. In October 2018, the Federal Court of Justice (Bundesgerichtshof) in Karlsruhe ruled that, unlike heterosexual couples, the wife of the child's legal mother does not automatically become a parent, and that an adoption is necessary.
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She was a contributor to the development of the UK’s first IVF programme. She served as nursing director of the Hallam Medical Centre, and was a founder member of the RCN Fertility Nurse Group that lobbied for the development of the current Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA) Act. In 1992 she was named the first nurse appointed to the HFEA, which regulates and inspects all UK clinics providing IVF, donor insemination or the storage of eggs, sperm or embryos. In her current role as Director of the Multiple Births Foundation, she has contributed to significant change in public and professional perception and attitudes towards multiple births.
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However, parents and donors can make formal agreements as to how things will work but the courts do have flexibility as to whether they recognise these agreements or not, under section 41 of the Care of Children Act 2004. Lesbian women who have trouble conceiving using private donor insemination may be eligible, as other New Zealand women are, to help through publicly funded fertility treatment. However, there are conditions on this and every woman needing fertility treatment is scored as to her eligibility. Now passed, the current Marriage (Definition of Marriage) Amendment Act 2013 enables eligible married same-sex parents to adopt children as there is a clause to that effect contained therein.
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Minnesota law allows single LGBT people to petition to adopt children, whilst there is no specific prohibition against joint same-sex couple adoption petitions or stepchild petitions for same-sex couples.Human Rights Campaign: Minnesota Adoption Law , accessed May 15, 2013 The state's only organization solely dedicated to finding families for Minnesota's children, the Minnesota Adoption Resource Network, allows same-sex partners to adopt in identical fashion to single people and opposite-sex partners.MN Adopt: How to Adopt , accessed May 15, 2013 In addition, lesbian couples have access to in vitro fertilization. State law recognizes the non-genetic, non- gestational mother as a legal parent to a child born via donor insemination, but only if the parents are married.
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Same-sex couples are allowed to legally adopt children. Additionally, lesbian couples have access to in vitro fertilization (the non- gestational, non-genetic parent is automatically recognized as a legal parent of a child born via donor insemination), and gay couples are permitted to undertake gestational and traditional surrogacy arrangements under the same terms and conditions as different-sex couples. On December 2, 2016, a legislative committee passed a bill, in a 9-0 vote, to allow commercial surrogacy contracts for all couples.D.C. Council committee approves 2 LGBT bills On December 22, 2016, the Council of the District of Columbia passed the bill in its second reading unanimously by a vote of 13-0.
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One of the key issues arising from the rise of dependency on assisted reproductive technology (ARTs) is the pressure placed on couples to conceive; 'where children are highly desired, parenthood is culturally mandatory, and childlessness socially unacceptable'. The medicalization of infertility creates a framework in which individuals are encouraged to think of infertility quite negatively. In many cultures donor insemination is religiously and culturally prohibited, often meaning that less accessible "high tech" and expensive ARTs, like IVF, are the only solution. An over-reliance on reproductive technologies in dealing with infertility prevents many – especially, for example, in the "infertility belt" of central and southern Africa – from dealing with many of the key causes of infertility treatable by artificial insemination techniques; namely preventable infections, dietary and lifestyle influences.
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Some countries such as United Kingdom and Sweden, have a shortage of sperm donors. Sweden now has an 18-month-long waiting list for donor sperm. As a consequence of the shortage of donor sperm in UK in the late 1990s and the early years of the 21st century, British women travelled to Belgium and Spain for donor insemination,Wordspy In turn citing Madeleine Bunting, "X+Y=$: the formula for genetic imperialism," The Guardian, 16 May 2006 until those two countries changed their laws and imposed a maximum number of children one donor may produce. Prior to the change in the law, the limit in the number of children born to each donor depended upon practitioners at fertility clinics, and Belgian and Spanish clinics were purchasing donor sperm from abroad to satisfy demand for treatments.
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In March 2010, the City of Blue Mountains announced it would also offer all couples limited legal recognition. On 4 June 2008, the New South Wales Parliament passed the Miscellaneous Acts Amendment (Same Sex Relationships) Bill 2008 which recognises co-mothers as legal parents of children born through donor insemination, provides birth certificates allowing both mums to be recognised, creates amendments to 57 pieces of NSW legislation to ensure de facto couples, including same-sex couples, are treated equally with married couples, and creates amendments to the NSW Anti-Discrimination Act to ensure same-sex couples are protected from discrimination on the basis of their "marital or domestic status" in employment, accommodation and access to other goods and services. The bill passed with a vote of 64-11. The Law Reform Commission report recommended an optional statewide registry for same-sex couples.
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Golombok has pioneered research on lesbian mother families, gay father families, single mothers by choice, and families created by assisted reproductive technologies including in vitro fertilisation (IVF), donor insemination, egg donation and surrogacy. She conducted one of the first studies worldwide of children in lesbian mother families in the 1970s and of children born by assisted reproduction in the 1980s. Her research has challenged popular myths and assumptions about the social and psychological consequences for children of being raised in new family forms, and has advanced theoretical understanding of parental influences on child development more generally by showing that the quality of family relationships and the social context of the family are more influential in children’s psychological development than are the number, gender, sexual orientation or biological relatedness of their parents. Golombok’s research has informed policy and legislation on new family forms in the UK and internationally.
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