Surrogacy (1997)

Barcode (ID): 03B0241418                                           

Main Search Term and Keywords: Surrogacy, IVF, In Vitro Fertilisation, Adoption

Date of Broadcast: 28th January 1997

Clip Duration: 3 min 21 seconds

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Description: A US agent searching for women willing to become surrogate mothers has arrived in Britain. Bill Handel’s clinic in Los Angeles charges up to $30,000 per client. NAT looks at how surrogacy works in the UK.

• 1 in 6 couples cannot have a baby
• How?
• Adoption – UK babies in short supply – only 359 available in 1997
• IVF - not always available on NHS – not always successful
• Surrogacy? – illegal to ‘buy a baby’ however can pay towards a womans expenses
• ‘Straight surrogacy’ – sperm fertilised baby – surrogate mother and biological mother interviewed
• Fuzzy section
• Contract is important to protect surrogate
• Host surrogate – baby carried by another woman

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France – Fertility Controversy (2001)

Barcode (ID): 06D0618084                                                 

Main Search Term and Keywords: IVF, In Vitro Fertilisation

Date of Broadcast: 22nd June 2001

Clip Duration: 1 min 37 seconds

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Description: The doctor who treated a brother and sister so that they could have a test tube baby revealed today he had not done any background checks on the pair. Dr Vicken Sahakian, who performed the in vitro fertilisation treatment (IVF) at a Los Angeles clinic, said he would not have carried it out if he had known the woman was 62 years old or that the couple were not husband and wife, as they claimed. The birth of a baby boy – following the use of the brother’s sperm to fertilise a donor egg which was then implanted in the sister’s body – provoked a storm of protest yesterday

• Brother provided sperm to a surrogate and then to his sister.
• Birth of twins
• Authorities are to decide whether it is against the law
• Fuzzy section
• Doctor was led to believe their were husband and wife
• Worry over ethics and the pschyological effect on the twins when they are older

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Surrogate Mothers – Government Clampdown (1998)

Barcode (ID): 03B0271879                 

Main Search Term and Keywords: Surrogacy

Date of Broadcast: 14th October 1998
Clip Duration: 2 min 6 seconds

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Illustrates the ethics behind exploiting the surrogacy system whereby couples are gaining considerable wealth by exploiting others misfortune and not being any to have children

Description:
Women who have babies for other couples are to be banned from making money out of it. The crackdown by the government follows a string a high-profile cases that led to worries that some women were claiming expenses as a way of making a profit. It’s just one of several measures announced today by the Health Minister Tessa Jowell in an attempt to toughen the rules on the so-called “baby trade”. Now, for the first time, there’ll be a proper code of practice and strict rules governing any payments.

• Official report recommends that surrogate arrangements are tightened – agencies must be registered and required to follow a code of practise
• Also want to limit the expenses that can legality be paid to mothers to ensure no ‘market in babies’
• Kim Cotton – first surrogate mother 1985 – believes that the Government does not put a value on what a surrogate mother does
• Private arrangements are difficult to police
• Government wants it to stay as an altruistic arrangement rather than financial however one does not always come without the other
• Shows surrogate triplets of Anthony and Julie Cohn

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