Nation IN BRIEF : NEW YORK : Assembly OKs Ban on Paid Surrogates

The New York state Assembly passed a bill banning surrogate parenting for payment. The bill now goes to Gov. Mario M. Cuomo, who expressed support for it. If signed, New York would become the 18th state to prohibit the practice in some form. Democratic Assemblywoman Helene Weinstein said: “The bill makes a statement that in New York, we don’t believe that children should be treated as commodities to be bought and sold.” But opponents said it is cruel and senseless to deny infertile couples the only way to have a child genetically linked to one or both of them.