October 2015

New York Times Misguided: Anonymous Human Ova Sale Creates a Danger

By Mirah Riben A class action federal lawsuit is being pursued by egg “donors” for what they call “price fixing.” The lawsuit challenges the guidelines prepared by two professional organizations that set suggested limits on payments for egg “donations.” The mega-billion-dollar infertility industry argues that, regardless of the discomfort and risk involved in hormone injections and egg extraction, paying high compensation rates for these procedures would make it too tempting…


Fairness in Adoption?

By Mirah Riben Wisconsin adoptive parents and lawmakers are seeking to make Wisconsin more “friendly” toward adopters by increasing pressure for parents considering placing their children for adoption. The Wisconsin Adoption Fairness Act seeks “to bring Wisconsin in line with other states, many of whom don’t require court hearings and allow mothers the option to relinquish rights after 72 hours.” “Allow[s]” or pressures mothers to do so within a narrow…


Broken Adoptions: When “Forever” Is an Illusion

By Mirah Riben Repairing Broken Adoptions: Symposium Brings Together Leading Child Welfare and Legal Advocates to Address Permanency for Foster Youth For many young people who are adopted out of the foster care system, the promise of a “forever family” is an illusion. In New York City, anecdotal data from child advocates suggests that thousands of children adopted out of foster care end up displaced from their adoptive home. This…


American Surrogate Death: NOT the First

By Mirah Riben “Give me children, or else I die. Am I in God’s stead, who hath withheld from thee the fruit of the womb? Behold my maid Bilhah. She shall bear fruit upon my knees, that I may also have children by her.” Handmaid’s Tale, Margaret Atwood In Atwood’s novel, which takes place “after the catastrophe, when they shot the president and machine-gunned the Congress and blamed it on…