Group Plans to Police Surrogate Birth Programs

Two months after New Jersey’s highest court declared paid surrogate motherhood arrangements unconstitutional, a group of professionals who match couples with surrogate mothers announced on Monday the first measures to police the practice.

The policy calls for providing a six-month period in which the surrogate mother could change her mind and recommends six-month screening periods for prospective surrogates, nonprofit status for surrogacy programs and counseling for the natural and adoptive parents.

Seek to Set Standards

“What we’re trying to do is set standards for the field so that we don’t have another Baby M case,” said Betsy Aigen, a spokeswoman for the newly formed American Organization of Surrogate Parenting Practitioners.

Aigen is a psychologist at the Surrogate Mother Program in New York, and her 2-year-old daughter, Jennifer, was born to a surrogate mother.

Aigen’s organization plans to implement the uniform policies in 15 surrogacy programs around the country and to issue certificates to all programs that comply.

For two years, William and Elizabeth Stern of Tenafly, N. J., fought in court with Mary Beth Whitehead-Gould, who refused to give up custody of the girl she had been paid $10,000 to bear for them.

The New Jersey Supreme Court on Feb. 3 unanimously rejected Whitehead-Gould’s plea for custody of Baby M but restored her visitation rights. The child, Melissa Stern, now 2, lives with her natural father and adoptive mother.

Supports Payment

Although Aigen’s group concurred with the court’s decision that a woman should be allowed to change her mind, it said that it supported standardized payment for the surrogate mother.

“I think it’s important to let the public know that less than 1% of surrogate mothers have changed their minds,” Aigen said.

Provocative questioning of women applying to be surrogates is crucial, the group said.

“I try to discourage them from the beginning, and, if I can discourage them, they are not ready to be surrogates,” Aigen said.

Aigen said she once interviewed Whitehead, who has since remarried, but rejected her as a surrogate mother after their first meeting.