Selling Babies Is Everybody's Business

Wow, who gave you the soapbox to stand on while you judge people? Just because I'm proud of my child and my role as a mother - and I might choose to display that pride in any one of a number of ways - doesn't mean I am "commodifying" my child. Just because you didn't feel the same way about wanting a newborn doesn't give you the right to condemn infertile adults who do. Just because bad apples exist in the adoption market doesn't mean everyone who wants to adopt a baby is a selfish, bad person who "should" go find a needy child to give a home to.

You present yourself as a bleeding heart for children who need homes but true compassion for others - young and old - would be a great lesson for you to learn.

Bethany Christian Services is one of the biggest pile of fecal matter adoption agencies out there... it horrifies me how they treat birth parents parents by threatening, lying to and breaking their confidentiality.

When confronted about it they basically say "Everything were doing is legal" which sadly most of it is, except for giving out the names of birth parents to adoptive parents that wan't their names kept confidential.

The adoption industry has turned into the business of selling children to make a substantial profit. Sadly the agency that starts with Bethany and ends in Christian Services is leading the way in making this about money and not about children.

Erickson has set back the surrogacy and adoption communities tremendously through her unscrupulous and fraudulent actions. It absolutely sickens me. We all work so hard in the adoption and infertility/assisted reproduction communities to dispel myths and out-right ignorance surrounding how we build our families; but, of course, no one will remember the stories of healthy families brought together by assisted reproduction or adoption - they'll only remember the Theresa Erickson's of the world.

As the daughter of an adopted mother (and uncles), I have thought long and hard about the ramifications of both my attempting to get pregnant through medical treatments and our final decision to adopt. I know for a fact that the majority of fertile, married women that I know have never had to contemplate half of what I've had to think through. At the end of the day, it just really effin' SUCKS that I have to think about a potential child in any way other than just desiring to love them and care for them. BUT, I do. The lawyers, agencies, even some birth mothers I've encountered seem to treat the children they place and are carrying as a cash cow. (Now, obviously, what I'm talking about are cases much like the one we're discussing, I KNOW that not every agency or birth-mother thinks like this, but my husband and I have certainly encountered our fair share of SHADY people during this process; and it's disgusting!)

Then, what of my very dear friends who just so happen to be a gay couple? Two men who are loving and wish desperately to have a child...they have no options other than surrogacy or adoption. I have watched their torment as they've navigated the terrifying waters of surrogacy, only to have their hopes dashed on the rocks many a time due to people like Erickson - my heart aches for them.

The most important thing we can do is what we're doing - be vocal about the good, bad, and ugly - but just TALK about it. I'm often shocked and angered at how many people seem to act as if adoption/assisted reproduction/infertility are still taboo topics. Nothing will change if we don't hold one another accountable and get information out to the public.

Thanks for this post - very insightful! :-)

As an adopted child, the WHOLE thing sickens me. The phrase "parents for babies" reverberates thru me. It should be the mantra of any person seeking to be a parent, instead of the on going "I want a baby."

Ultimately, while I don't necessarily buy into the Christian dogma, I believe what my mom has always told me to be the most profound; "God had a plan for me and it wasn't for me to have my "own" children, but to be a mother to someone else's."

Unfortunately, this is horrible news for the industry; however, as an insider to the ART industry and parent of twins that I had through the legal assistance of Theresa Erickson and other professionals; persons with half an idea of what happened here need to also consider that this may just be that a few greedy people used a generous and caring individual that was at the forefront of this industry to work under to hide their devious plans.
One thing to think about is that she too has a story and unfortunately cannot share it due to the pending sentencing, but the truth about the involvement shall be told in time as she stated in the lone statement made thus far by Mrs. Erickson.
Many that jump on the band wagon and go out on a witch hunt for a person that has helped create thousands of families over the years may want to wait to judge her. Has anyone thought that this whole situation may be a case of her taking the plea to protect those thousands of legitimate families that were created from having their personal lives dragged out into the public forum? I know I would be highly upset to have my private life dragged through the public eye and have judgmental people ridiculing my wife and I for using not only a sperm donor and egg donor, but for using a surrogate too; all years after my family was created. Yes, we were in an arrangement based out of San Diego with all parties (egg donor, sperm donor and surrogate) all through different agencies/companies that were local along with the fertility Dr. I am sure many would want to ridicule me as well since neither my wife nor I are genetically related to our children, yet we love them more than life itself and don’t care that the DNA doesn’t match ours. My children know who their parents are and know they are the center of our lives and are very much loved. Oh, and by the way, the final amount spent in achieving my family was not around $100k. We spent well over $150K and gave up keeping track there. When doing the math, Surrogate, Egg Donor, Sperm Donor, Insurance for our surrogate, IVF Fees (the most expensive part of the whole arrangement), agency fees (for merely matching you with your egg donor, surrogate and sperm donor) and attorney fees, it’s easy to surpass $100K. My only thought on this is where is this profit to make it worth it for an attorney that had a thriving firm with hundreds of clients a year that would pay her for the legal side which is by far the cheapest part of the whole arrangement (yet also the most important)?
As far as the other codefendants, it is my understanding that one was a serial surrogate that was not physically capable of being a surrogate any longer due to her own reproductive health issues and turned into a “coordinator” that bounced around with residences inside and outside the US while the other (who was also a well known attorney in the ART field) was also a major part of the arrangements and from what it sounds like from individuals closely related was a key person and instrumental in the early stages of these questionable arrangements.
Also, they say one of the whistle blowers was a competitor… hmmm kind of odd that a competitor would do so something like this without their own personal interests involved since everyone is saying Theresa was the top attorney in the field and known for such around the world. I’m sure they only had the best intentions in mind and in no way thought about how they may benefit from trying to take down the top attorney in the country.
So far the story in the media has changed multiple times from when they first got wind of it Tuesday afternoon. The FBI and AG have only made limited statements without giving any details of the plea agreement and only list the charges and potential maximum penalties. As anyone with limited legal knowledge may know… charges are basically a list of elements and criteria that must be met before charging a person with a crime. No one said she was indicted. She merely pled guilty and it is typical that there should have been a statement of facts in support of the plea. To not be indicted or have her office raided, she must have been very forthcoming with the FBI and was very cooperative as to her role (if any in the scheme).
I am looking forward to hearing the full story and not contributing to the hysteria that the internet message boards and blogs are doing to fuel the fire that the media has set. All of these people that are uninvolved or not knowing the industry and/or facts involved are achieving by voicing their opinions are what is making everything worse for everyone else that do business in the ART industry and those families that were built through the amazing work of an ENTIRE team of professionals that make such a thing possible.
The media loves to report on juicy topics and tend to stretch a 2 line statement into a 2 page story of unverified statements or ideas. I believe this is what’s happening here. Just stop for a second and look at how much new information is coming out since Tuesday? None… except people looking for face time on camera or to create mass hysteria with their OMG’s and I knew she was shady without even knowing the true person/ professional that has helped so many. I must say this as well to all the people writing without any purpose than to just gossip… bloggers do not have the greatest credibility either since they just type whatever they feel or believe and in most cases don’t go out and obtain the facts before posting something that could be damaging to the industry they are so-called “trying to protect.”

Hmm. I'll have to think about this more. I agree with much of what you've written and with the overall gist of the piece, but to me, some of the finer points paint third-party reproduction and ART with too broad of a brush. I *do* think that in some instances (the extreme ones), children are viewed as commodities. However, I have a hard time applying that thick of a label to the "business" of creating families via ART/third-party reproduction. It's a fine line to draw between paying for a child and paying for the services used to create a child, but it is one that makes a huge difference. Erickson took advantage of this and blurred that line, much to the detriment of those of us who (in any capacity) are trying to build families or are trying to help others do so.

I am a former gestational surrogate and also a senior moderator for a major online surrogacy community. As such, I have been in contact with a few of the surrogates who were unfortunately involved in this situation. I would like to clarify for them and for the greater surrogacy community - the "surrogate labor" were NOT "made happy" because they were paid "going surrogacy rates," as you've stated. Vast majority of surrogates are not primarily motivated by the compensation they can earn (and I believe that any that IS earned is well-deserved). These women were devestated to learn that the intended parents they *thought* they had were non-existant, or that they had backed out of the arrangement as Erickson had led them to believe. They spent weeks feeling emotionally distraught on behalf of the babies they carried, worried about whether they truly would find adoptive parents to love and cherish the babies who SHOULD have had parents present to love them before they were ever conceived. Just because the surrogates were compensated in no way means that they did not experience any ill-effects from Erickson's ruse.

I do believe that there needs to be some regulation; I wrote about this topic just today (and about the Erickson case yesterday). However, I am also concerned about how that as well, as regulation that is *too* strict can be dangerous, as well.

"Everyone who cares about children -- who cares about how capitalism diminishes human values universally -- ought to join us."

As a married infertile woman, I can understand how quick we are to jump on the "everything should be financially altruistic" bandwagon - believe me. We're still trying to save the $15K we need to undergo donor egg IVF. But that said, there is something to be said about free-market capitalism. Profits are going to be made yes, but I feel the need to speak on just how much things cost related to ART.

IVF: from suppression to stimulation to retrieval to fertilization to transfer - these are not cheap procedures we're talking about here. From the technical procedures themselves to highly specialized technicians to complete these procedures: these absolutely must come at a cost. Are those costs inflated in the US? Totally. A story for another day.

The folks who are truly altrustic: donors and surrogates who not only donate their time but their very bodies - they deserve to be compensated for that time. Let me be clear: we are not buying their babies. I think the current ASRM guidelines on recommended donor compensation ($5-10K) are more than generous.

The fact of the matter is that yes, ART, no matter what the flavor, is going to cost money. That's why I'm a huge advocate for mandated insurance coverage to offset the out of pocket costs for infertility patients. The issue is that Erickson not only circumvented established regulation and reproductive laws, but then did so for personal financial profit.

You can't fault an industry for charging its customers the foundational costs of care. You can make an argument then about how much is added on top for the profit of those professionals, but you can't wave a wand and make everything free. It's just not realistic.

GREAT piece. And it's absolutely true that we often 'wait' for incidents like these to start talking about the ethical issues that go along with all types of parenting, and end the conversations after some 'isn't it a shame's, without putting effort into the long-term work that needs to happen around it all. I think it's especially important for those of us who aren't parents (even if we plan to be later on) - it's easy to tsk-tsk and then move on, but that doesn't help to end this kind of thinking.

I also wanted to mention the surrogates were not paid the "going rate" for their pregnancies. First time surrogates receive about $20,000-25,000 for a year (or more depending on failed cycles/miscarriages) of service. The women working with Erickson, Neiman and Chambers were given $38,000 - $45,000 for their pregnancies.

People need to pay attention to warning signs and red flags and question what may seem too good to be true.

Why was Theresa Erickson (proper last name) the only one implicated in your article here? She was a ring leader yes, but two others plead guilty right along with her, Hilary Neiman another Surrogacy lawyer in Maryland and Carla Chambers a surrogate and one who recruited surrogates for Erickson and Neiman. They are all equally guilty in this.

Also, I was a surrogate... last year I carried triplets for a family that tried for years to have children of their own. For me it was amazing to be able to give the gift of life to those who couldn't on their own. Those babies are long awaited, loved and treasured by many, many people.