Fertility Treatment for Unmarried Persons and GLBT

All over the country, a growing number of professional women without male partners have chosen to have children, sometimes with the help of donor insemination. We have also seen an increase in the number of unmarried persons, including those who are gay or lesbian, who seek medical assistance to reproduce. Based on the available scientific evidence, we do not believe that one can reasonably claim that unmarried persons or gays and lesbians harm their children by reproducing outside of heterosexual marital relations. Children born in such situations do not appear to have appreciably worse lives than do children born to heterosexual, married parents.

The Ethics Committee of the American Society for Reproductive Medicine (ASRM) in 2006 published an Ethics Committee Report titled: ‘Access to Fertility Treatment by Gays, Lesbians, And Unmarried Persons’ stating that:
• Unmarried persons and gays and lesbians have interests in having and rearing children.
• There is no persuasive evidence that children raised by single parents or by gays and lesbians are harmed or disadvantaged by that fact alone.
• Programs should treat all requests for assisted reproduction equally without regard to marital status or sexual orientation.

Here at the Laurel Fertility Care, we have extensive success stories in treating patients through the use of third-party gamete donor or surrogate carrier, and we agree with the ASRM that marital reproduction is no longer solely coital and may include a third-party gamete donor or surrogate carrier. As a matter of fact, we have formed a dedicated compassionate team in assisting these patients, through established relationships with several of this country’s most highly regarded surrogacy and donor agencies.

We at the Laurel Fertility Care believe that our ethical duty to treat persons with equal respect requires that our program treats single persons and gay and lesbian couples equally with married couples in determining which services to provide. We never deny reproductive services to unmarried or homosexual persons, unless other aspects of the situation also would disqualify married or heterosexual individuals from services.

Currently in the United States, there are an estimated 6 to 14 million children being raised by at least one gay or lesbian parent. We are proud to have been a part in bringing these children to this world.