More than 100 gay
Australian couples have paid $80,000 to create a baby
using surrogate mothers in the United States, according
to one Los Angeles-based fertility clinic.
"We've seen more
than 125 gay couples from Australia who have gone home
with a baby," the Fertility Institute's medical director,
Jeffrey Steinberg, told the Australian Associated Press.
"We're up to six
to eight a month now, which is a four-fold increase
over two years ago. That makes Australia one of our biggest
markets, neck-and-neck with Britain," he said. It is
illegal for gay couples to have children through
surrogacy in Australia.
Clients of the
Fertility Institute pick an egg donor from a list of
400 university students. The eggs are then implanted in a
different woman, who bears the child. Most of the gay
Australians who use the clinics services are affluent,
professional men who "desperately want a child,"
Steinberg told AAP.
Surrogacy laws in
Australia vary from state to state, and while the
country is moving toward making laws consistent nationwide,
it is unlikely to legalize surrogacy for gay couples,
according to AAP. (The Advocate)