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Latest Surrogacy News
Do these two men and their
babies constitute the most bizarre surrogate family in
America?
By Charles Laurence in New York
(Filed: 18/04/2004)
News.Telegraph.co.uk
Even in a world of
increasingly unorthodox surrogacy arrangements, a family
of newborns in Kentucky has managed to break new ground.
Thomas Dysarz sounds
like any gushing new father when he says: "The babies
are wonderful, they are all at home, doing very well,
and we are all so happy."
But his sense of
paternal pride is one of the very few aspects of family
life that he shares with other parents.
Mr Dysarz, a
32-year-old hairdresser, and Michael Meehan, his
boyfriend of six years, are the first known homosexual
couple who have each fathered biological children by the
same surrogate mother.
The first babies were
born on July 26, 2002, a set of quadruplets delivered by
the surrogate mother, 25-year-old Brooke Verity, who
used to have her hair cut by Mr Dysarz. A girl named
Taylor, and three boys - Jacob, Michael and Tristan -
were born after in vitro fertilisation (IVF) using sperm
from Mr Meehan, 37, a lawyer.
Step two of the men's
plan was implemented just 10 months after the quads were
born, when Miss Verity once again became pregnant via
IVF, this time using Mr Dysarz's sperm. On January 9
this year, she gave birth to another baby boy, Brandon.
In this most tangled
tale of non-traditional families, there are still
further complications. Before she became a surrogate
mother, Miss Verity was already a single mother of three
young children.
Now, while Mr Meehan,
Mr Dysarz and their five children live in a big house on
the outskirts of Lexington, Kentucky, Miss Verity lives
nearby with her three other children. The two men are
helped by an au pair who looks after the babies while
they run their hairdressing salons, Planet Salon and The
Rain Spa. Miss Verity, whom the children know as "Auntie
Brooke", visits once a month.
She told the local
newspaper, the Lexington Herald Leader, that she agreed
to bear the men's children because, as she got to know
them, she realised that they would be "great dads". She
said: "I didn't look at what they are, but who they
are."
She admitted that it
had been hard to turn away from the babies. She is
keeping a diary for them, which she has begun with the
words: "I love you all. I'll never regret what I did.
Every single day, I'll think about you."
All she asked in return
for producing the babies was a tummy-tuck. "You can't
have eight children and look good," she explained. She
has also started work as a stylist at the Planet Salon.
If the three adults are
happy with their domestic arrangements, America's legal
system is less comfortable. When Miss Verity went to the
local circuit court to relinquish her parental rights to
the quads - a routine step for a surrogate mother - the
judge balked.
Such an unfamiliar
set-up was uncharted territory, but the judge declared
in a preliminary report that the babies needed "both a
mother and a father". He appointed a legal guardian for
them, and rejected Miss Verity's application to give up
her rights. The trio withdrew their petition and Miss
Verity still shares parental rights with each father.
"We were just trying to
become parents. We weren't trying to make a political
statement," Mr Meehan told the homosexual rights
magazine The Advocate.
The men, who describe
themselves as Republican-voting Christian conservatives,
moved to Kentucky from Los Angeles in search of an
atmosphere more conducive to "family values".
They even had a bitter
fight when doctors insisted on aborting a fifth foetus
that Miss Verity was carrying in the first pregnancy. Mr
Dysarz was strongly opposed to any abortion, even one
intended to safeguard the health of the mother and the
four other babies.
The only public protest
over their unconventional family came when Fr Paul
Prabell, of Lexington's Roman Catholic Cathedral of
Christ the King, agreed to christen the children,
explaining that the fathers had promised to raise them
as Catholics.
A militant
anti-homosexual Kentucky pastor, Fred Phelps, travelled
to Lexington and hoisted protest banners reading "God
Hates Fags" - but was outnumbered 10 to one by locals
who staged a rival demonstration of support.
Mr Dysarz said: "I
realised that people weren't judging us, they welcomed
us. They don't see us as a gay couple, they see us as a
family. We're an alternative family, but we're still a
family."
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