N.Y. OKs Ban on Profiting as a Surrogate

Gov. Mario M. Cuomo signed a bill Wednesday making New York the latest state to ban surrogate parenting for profit.

The state Legislature, pushed by an unusual coalition that included the National Organization for Women and the New York State Catholic Conference, approved the ban last month. It takes effect in one year.

New Yorkers will still be allowed to act as surrogates for friends or relatives, but no contracts can be signed and a fee can’t be paid to the surrogate or a broker.

The law will have a significant impact in New York. A state Health Department report released this spring estimated that 40% of the nation’s surrogate parenting deals are arranged in the state.

It also will have an impact on lawyer Noel Keane, described by Assemblywoman Helene Weinstein, the bill’s sponsor, as the “big daddy of baby brokers.” Keane said he arranges about 75 surrogate parenting contracts a year, which he estimated was more than half the commercial business in this country.

Keane moved his office to New York City from Michigan when that state banned the practice in 1988.

And he’s expanding overseas. He has an agent based in Tokyo and has arranged for American women to be surrogates for six Japanese couples. Keane said he has advertised for surrogates in Asian ethnic newspapers in New York City for the past year.

Keane said infertile couples and women from New York state will be the losers under the new law.

“Surrogate parenting seems to be a very good avenue for many of these people and it works,” he said.

Infertile couples generally pay Keane a $16,000 fee plus $10,000 to the woman, he said. All medical expenses are borne by the couples, he said. Japanese couples pay more because of international adoption requirements for records and other paperwork, he said.