Safety and costs for third party reproduction outside of the U.S: Carolina Conceptions Responds to the Wall Street Journal Article

Infertile couples competing for rare resources such as human eggs and surrogates are vulnerable. The desire to have a child motivates couples and individuals to consider alternatives inherent with personal and financial risk.

“Assembling the Global Baby” (WSJ Dec. 11, 2010), suggests that bearing an offspring in India is more cost-effective than similar treatment in the United States. Although it may be more exotic, it is certainly not medically or legally safer. Represented cost estimates are inaccurate and the reader is left with the impression that a surrogate cycle is financially exorbitant in the U.S. No references were provided for your estimated costs of $32,000-$68,000 outside the country versus upwards of $200,000 in the U.S. As practicing infertility specialists in the southeastern U.S., we are aware of many U.S. clinics that provide third party reproductive services with costs similar to or lower than those quoted for outside the US. At our clinic, a couple (heterosexual or gay) seeking the use of an egg donor and gestational carrier can accomplish this for the cost of around $50,000 and also avoid inconveniences associated with international travel and brokering.

Cost effectiveness aside, surrogacy in the US is arguably safer. Our industry is regulated by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), with detailed guidelines specifying infectious disease screening and handling of donor gametes (sperm and eggs) for all parties including the surrogate or gestational carriers and the intended parents. These guidelines guarantee that HIV, hepatitis and a list of infectious diseases will not be transmitted. Additionally the majority of U.S. fertility clinics report to a national database overseen by the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and SART( Society for Reproductive Technologies) in which the public can access clinic pregnancy rates and outcomes, thus making more informed choices.

Grace Couchman, MD
William Meyer, MD
John Park, MD
Carolina Conceptions, Raleigh, NC