“Thanks to Zacahary, gay surrogacy will become more acceptable” –
There is a huge amount of media coverage in England being devoted to the Christmas day announcement that Elton John and David Furnish have had a baby born by a surrogate mother in the US.
It’s likely to be a story that goes on and on and on, at least in the British media, which seems to be dividing itself between shock, horror and absolute hostility to cautious welcomes! Whilst I may not think Elton and David are the optimum age for starting a family, but nor are the countless millions of straight couples who conceive in the more traditional methods. According to the media, with fertility treatments becoming more available at lower costs, we are seeing ladies of advanced age giving birth.
There was a good bit in the UK’s Telegraph paper this Sunday which talks hopefully of surrogacy for gay couples becoming more acceptable following this news. Barrie & Tony Drewitt-Barlow – the first gay couple in Britain to have a baby with a surrogate mother, and who advised Sir Elton John and David Furnish over their new son, Zachary – tell Olga Craig about their newest arrival: a “one-stop-shop” surrogate baby centre which they open in Essex next month.
It is a morality tale for our times. To the casual observer, they could have been the conventional Christmas festivities seen in any household – turkey and trimmings, excited children, doting parents and a huge pile of presents under the tree.
But this was anything but a traditional gathering. In the Drewitt-Barlow home, the guest list for last weekend’s laughter-filled Christmas lunch consisted of five children, their two fathers and their four mothers.
In our changing moral climate, in which the traditional nuclear family is becoming increasingly outmoded, such a mix of melded families is far from uncommon.
But this household – a happy one, it must be said – is unique. Seated around the table with gay parents Barrie and Tony Drewitt-Barlow and their children were the two women who donated eggs and the pair who were the surrogates, carrying the children.
The youngsters call Barrie Dad and Tony Daddy and refer to all four women as Mum. They live with their fathers in Essex during term time and spend the holidays in California, where the couple also have a home and where they see their mothers – although none of the women has any legal rights over their offspring.
Barrie Drewitt-Barlow, 42, and his partner Tony, 46, were headline news a decade ago when they became Britain’s first gay surrogate parents.
They made history when they travelled to America and, using an egg donor and a surrogate mother, became joint fathers to twins Aspen and Saffron, now 11. The couple launched a legal battle for the right to have both their names on the twins’ birth certificates, being designated as parent one and parent two.
In the years since, having become acknowledged authorities on surrogacy, they have gone on to have three more children – Orlando, now six, and twins Dallas and Jasper, nine months.
Although the unorthodox creation of the Drewitt-Barlows’ children caused considerably controversy in 1999, things have changed.
Taatamata 