Single, gay, 50: one man takes surrogacy road to parenthood

‘I did this as a human being, not as a gay man.” New York resident Kevin Moran is reflecting on his decision to have a family as a 50-year-old single man, by means of egg donation and surrogacy. He is speaking to me by phone from his upper west side apartment.

Eight-week-old Ari is sucking on the bottle, in his daddy’s arms. Ari’s fraternal twin, Beau, is close by, in the safe hands of a live-in nanny.

Being on the vanguard of “the culture” is not a pressing concern for Moran. He has more pedestrian, familial worries. About to return to work after paternity leave, he is still settling the boys into their routines and, on a personal level, finding new balance after two months lived in extremis.

The boys’ birth has been the culmination of a two-year personal journey, bringing unparalleled joy, some considerable frustration and, as he puts it, “a few meltdowns” in the shape of medical emergency.

Motivation

What is it, I wonder, that prompts a single gay man arriving into genteel middle age to want children?

“A friend asked me to be her ‘baby daddy’ a few years back. Ultimately I said no, because our friendship was not strong enough to sustain being joint parents, but it really got me thinking.”

Her request triggered clarity. He wanted to be not just a father but a dad, and was prepared, emotionally and financially, to have a family as a single parent; he just needed to figure out how best to do it.

Having a child by way of donor eggs and surrogacy is a complex legal proposition in the US. The law varies state by state, and stealth is required to assure that the legal rights to parentage are incontestable, falling, in Moran’s case, to the “commissioning parent” alone.

Indeed, Irish law is complicated and ambiguous regarding surrogacy, and specific legislation is absent. Alan Shatter’s recent guidance document on surrogacy outside of the State outlines important considerations, but ultimately recommends that anyone considering surrogacy abroad seek expert legal advice.

The complexity of surrogacy chiefly emanates from the paradox that being the genetic parent of a child does not automatically mean that one is its legal parent. Our law did not envisage where science and culture have brought us.

Agency

Moran engaged an LA-based surrogacy agency, Growing Generations, dedicated to building “families of choice” among a worldwide, chiefly gay clientele.

Opting for surrogacy using an egg donor is a costly process. Moran reckons the cost can range from $125,000-$200,000 (€97,700-€156,460), depending on circumstances. The process can also be lengthy and subject to distressing setbacks.

His first and most challenging consideration was finding a suitable surrogate mother. This is achieved through a matching process, one where each party – surrogate mother and commissioning father – chooses the other by means of photos, personal essays and mediated introductions.

Practical decisions informed his choice. He favoured prospective surrogate mothers who were healthy and motivated by a desire to contribute rather than purely financial gain (typically US mothers are paid about $25,000).

He also sought a woman with prior experience as a surrogate mother, and thus someone with prior knowledge of surrogacy’s emotional and physical journey.

The woman who ultimately gave birth to Ari and Beau, was a 34-year-old mother-of-three from Texas, who had already been a surrogate mother for a gay French couple.

Moran visited her twice during the pregnancy, and also met her husband and family. It turned out to be a positive and rewarding experience for all.

Labyrinth

As all of this was under way, Growing Generations steered Moran through the labyrinthine process of finding an egg donor, processing, fertilising and implanting the egg. It is a process immersed in science and uncertainty.