DonorChildren

Washington State is starting off 2018 with a massive blow to children’s rights. A proposed bill will overhaul parenting laws around surrogacy and donor conception. Highlights:

-There are ZERO references or even hints to the rights/needs of children to be known and loved by both biological parents.

– According to this bill, you are the parent to a donor conceived child if you “intend” to be regardless of genetics. Of course, that doesn’t apply for adoptive parents who still must undergo extensive scrutiny, training and supervision. Yet in both situations, biological strangers are being granted custody of children which is inherently risky.

– Commercial surrogacy will be legal, with only one doctor “visit” needed in Washington. So, find a poor brown woman from abroad, impregnate her, fly her to Seattle for the weekend, and then send her back and Viola!, you have a “Washington surrogacy” contract. This is what we call surrogacy tourism- or when it comes to the baby- human trafficking.

– A gestational surrogate (that is, a woman who is carrying a child that is genetically hers) can legally sell her child to “intended parents” as long as a contract is signed prior to conception. But if the contract is signed after the birth (or if there is no contract at all), it is considered baby selling and the mother will be charged with human trafficking. Of course, from the child’s perspective the two situations are no different.

– If an “intended parent” dies prior to the birth of a donor conceived child, that adult is still the legal parent of the child. Even dead un-related adults have more rights than the child in this bill.

Them Before Us is mounting formal opposition to this bill. If you are donor conceived and would like to submit a paragraph in opposition, send us a message and will put it right on the desk of the legislators in Olympia.