BirthRoad Surrogacy Specialists in Fairfield have added a business segment for gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender communities to assist hopeful parents in these groups with surrogacy options and opportunities.
“We know that there are so many couples and individuals who will not be able to have a family without this option and at BirthRoad we are skilled and knowledgeable in guiding, matching and working closely with our clients from the initial meetings with their surrogate until the family leaves the hospital or birthing center with their baby,” said Linda Buck, CEO of BirthRoad. “We believe we can help all of our clients.”
BirthRoad, which works with heterosexual and gay families worldwide, has successfully connected more than a dozen families and surrogates this year.
Buck said, unlike New York where surrogacy is not recognized, Connecticut is a surrogacy-friendly state with a favorable court system she hopes will continue to improve in regard to protection and legal rights for parents using surrogate mothers.
Buck is working with business partner, Victoria Ferrara, principal of the law firm of Victoria T. Ferrara P.C., in Fairfield. Ferrara has experience in assisted reproductive law. Buck said there is great sensitivity to the personal and financial challenges of the surrogacy process.
“Our work with these wonderful people is guided by grace, love and dignity,” Ferrara said. “We have so much more work to do. BirthRoad”™s goal is to reach places across the country where we know that family matters and because we understand and already service the GLBT community, we provide a broad range of surrogacy-related legal services, including pre-birth orders and co-parent adoptions by same sex parents from here in the U.S. and abroad.”
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Buck said BirthRoad is contacting gay and lesbian centers, churches and synagogues in efforts to explain options.
Buck said using surrogacy to bring a child or, in 50 percent of cases, a set of twins to excited and deserving parents may be easier than anticipated once BirthRoad makes a sound match with a surrogate mother, but it is often very costly. The total can exceed $100,000, depending on a variety of factors.
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“While it may be hard to believe that anyone would spend that kind of money, time and energy pursuing a pregnancy, at BirthRoad we meet parents every day who are simply unwilling to give up on their desire to have a family,” Buck said. “They are committed, as we are, to the process.”
Buck said the explosion of the Internet as a global resource for surrogacy options has enabled more heterosexual and gay couples and singles, in states and countries that prohibit surrogacy, to find organizations that fulfill their dreams of having a family.
“We can offer them the safety and security,” Buck said. “Our outcomes have been stellar.”
