{"id":16770,"date":"2015-06-30T08:00:59","date_gmt":"2015-06-30T13:00:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/?p=16770"},"modified":"2015-07-17T00:02:32","modified_gmt":"2015-07-17T05:02:32","slug":"surrogacy-a-new-normal-in-parenting","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/surrogacy-a-new-normal-in-parenting\/","title":{"rendered":"Surrogacy: A new normal in parenting"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Anne Arntson<\/p>\n

Chelsea Jarvis delivered twins last year, but they were not her own.<\/p>\n

Kelly Stoeber gave birth to a baby girl on April 6, but her two young sons did not get a sister.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor that 40 weeks, it kind of provided as my identity,\u201d said Stoeber, a first-time surrogate.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

The three children delivered by Jarvis and Stoeber are among 750 babies who are born in the United States every year through gestational surrogacy, according to WebMD. In Illinois, a surrogacy-friendly state, the two women are gestational surrogates, who carry children for families who cannot conceive but do not provide the eggs.<\/p>\n

Shirley Zager, director of Parenting Partners, said: \u201cFor legal reasons that makes this process much more streamlined, especially for getting parentage established with your child.\u201d<\/p>\n

She added: \u201cFor emotional reasons, too, that seems to be a better fit for surrogates. They don\u2019t feel like they\u2019re giving away a baby that is related to their family.\u201d<\/p>\n

In 2005, the state passed the Gestational Surrogacy Act, which established the standards for families and surrogates to follow. Under the law, only the intended parents\u2019 names are listed on the birth certificate.<\/p>\n

Neighboring state Indiana does not have a similar law. In fact, if a surrogate travels into a state without an existing law and the surrogate goes into labor, her name could go on the baby\u2019s birth certificate.<\/p>\n