Gay father surrogacy families: relationships with surrogates and egg donors and parental disclosure of children's origins.

Lucy Blake,Susan Golombok,Anke A Ehrhardt,Elizabeth Raffanello,Nicola Carone,Jenna Slutsky

doi:10.1016/j.fertnstert.2016.08.013

Abstract

ObjectiveTo study the nature and quality of relationships between gay father families and their surrogates and egg donors and parental disclosure of children's origins.DesignCross-sectional study.SettingFamily homes.Patient(s)Parents in 40 gay father families with 3–9-year-old children born through surrogacy.Intervention(s)Administration of a semistructured interview.Main Outcome Measure(s)Relationships between parents, children, surrogates, and egg donors and parental disclosure of children's origins were examined using a semistructured interview.Result(s)The majority of fathers were content with the level of contact they had with the surrogate, with those who were discontent wanting more contact. Fathers were more likely to maintain relationships with surrogates than egg donors, and almost all families had started the process of talking to their children about their origins, with the level of detail and children's understanding increasing with the age of the child.Conclusion(s)In gay father surrogacy families with young children, relationships between parents, children, surrogates, and egg donors are generally positive.

Highlights

When children in the United Kingdom longitudinal study of surrogacy families headed by heterosexual couples were 10 years old [6], 58% of parents with a genetic surrogate had told their children about the surrogate but had not mentioned the fact that the surrogate's egg had been used in their conception. This partial disclosure suggests that the use of a surrogate in the gestation and birth of a child may be easier to disclose to young children than is the use of donor eggs
The present study examined three questions in a sample of gay father families with 3–9-year-old children born through surrogacy: [1] Do gay fathers and their children have contact with their surrogates and egg donors? [2] What kind of relationships do gay fathers and their children have with their surrogates and egg donors? [3] What have parents explained to their children about their surrogacy origins?
Fathers were asked about the process of telling their children about their origins, focusing on the frequency and content of discussions they had had with their children about the surrogacy process, the use of an egg donor, and whose sperm was used in the child's conception

Summary

Objective

To study the nature and quality of relationships between gay father families and their surrogates and egg donors and parental disclosure of children's origins. When children in the United Kingdom longitudinal study of surrogacy families headed by heterosexual couples were 10 years old [6], 58% of parents with a genetic surrogate had told their children about the surrogate but had not mentioned the fact that the surrogate's egg had been used in their conception. This partial disclosure suggests that the use of a surrogate in the gestation and birth of a child may be easier to disclose to young children than is the use of donor eggs. The present study examined three questions in a sample of gay father families with 3–9-year-old children born through surrogacy: [1] Do gay fathers and their children have contact with their surrogates and egg donors? [2] What kind of relationships do gay fathers and their children have with their surrogates and egg donors? [3] What have parents explained to their children about their surrogacy origins?

MATERIALS AND METHODS

Procedure

RESULTS

Disclosure of whose sperm was used

DISCUSSION