The House Judiciary Committee passed the Oklahoma
Surrogate Parenting Act in spite of concerns
expressed by adoption proponents that it would bring
about fundamental changes in the definition of
motherhood.
"It makes the child a commodity," said Michael A.
Nomura, president of Heritage Family Services, Inc.,
of Tulsa.
The measure's author, Rep. Ray Miller, D-Quinton,
said the bill would permit a married couple to have
their fertilized embryo placed into the womb of
another woman throughout the child's developmental,
or gestation, period.
The couple, not the surrogate mother, would be the
child's legal parents at birth, Miller said. Under
current state law, the couple must formally adopt
the child from the surrogate mother.
Nomura, speaking for the Oklahoma Adoption
Coalition, said he favors adoption and believes the
legislation would permit a procedure that is
improper for the Legislature to endorse.
But Dr. David Kallenberger of Oklahoma City said the
procedure provides hope to women who want their own
biological children but have a history of
miscarriages or who have experienced uterine damage
or removal.
Fertilization of a couple's egg and sperm takes
place in a laboratory and the embryo is surgically
placed in the womb of the surrogate mother, who
carries the child to term, Kallenberger said.
"This is not a surgery in which you take a man's
sperm and impregnate another woman," he said.
Miller said the measure would establish state
guidelines for surrogate motherhood. Kallenberger
said he refers couples who are interested in
surrogate mothers to Arkansas or Texas because of
uncertainty in Oklahoma law.
Under the measure, a gestational agreement would
require that a surrogate mother conceive "by means
of assisted reproduction and give birth to the child
on behalf of the married couple."
The measure, House Bill 2401, now goes to the full
House for a vote.
