The Men Having Babies event in Tel Aviv was wonderfully filled with many hopeful intended parents. The location at the Dan Panorama Hotel was perfect with plenty of room for all who came.
This conference is one of the most significant and comprehensive events on surrogacy in Israel. In attendance were 30 agencies, fertility clinics, and law firms from Israel and around the world with dozens of prospective intended parents, as well as parents and surrogates who shared their stories.
While there, I spoke as a representative from the U.S. on a panel about legal, bureaucratic, financial, and ethical aspects of surrogacy in Israel, the U.S., Canada, Ukraine and Georgia. My colleagues from other countries and I provided the attending Israeli intended parents with a good idea of the different surrogacy tracks that are available to them in these various countries. Discussion topics included communication with surrogacy agencies and clinics, costs, eligibility for health insurance coverage, sources for egg donation, screening and selection of surrogates, and differences in the process of parental recognition upon the return to Israel.
We also met with single, married, gay and straight intended parents, and provided them with much information about surrogacy: what kind of women become surrogate mothers in the United States, the complexities of surrogacy, and how we, at Worldwide Surrogacy, successfully manage the surrogacy journeys of intended parents and surrogate mothers.
Thank you to all who came to our breakout sessions and private consultations, to Yaron Avidan, Worldwide Surrogacy's Israel representative, and Men Having Babies for an amazing conference.