Gay couple who found an egg donor through the newspaper need a surrogate
An Australian鈥揘ew Zealander couple living in Toowoomba are closer to their dream of starting a family after finding an egg donor through a newspaper ad.
Nelson and Baden Marino-Hall married in Taup艒, New Zealand, in 2016.
They made headlines when they placed an ad in a local newspaper seeking a person of M膩ori descent鈥擝aden鈥檚 background鈥攖o donate eggs to help them have a child.
Their search was successful, and they have now created embryos with the donor, has reported.
The couple received about 60 offers of egg donation.
鈥淪he wrote a beautiful email鈥攁s did many others鈥攁bout who she was and why she wanted to do it, and a little bit about her family,鈥� said Baden.
“It came down to a couple of things. The medical side of things, her age, whether she’d completed her family.
“We wanted to see if we liked her personality and all those other traits that we would like in our children.鈥�
Baden said he and Nelson are 鈥渞eally excited鈥� but know the process of finding a surrogate to carry their baby will take longer.
The couple will attend a surrogacy conference this weekend as they start their search.
In Australia and New Zealand, paying or compensating a pregnancy surrogate is illegal.
鈥淭his process is altruistic,” Baden said.
“We can’t say to someone, ‘OK, we are going to give you $20,000 if you agree to be our surrogate.’ You can’t do that.
鈥淚t has to be from the goodness of their heart.鈥�
The pregnancy surrogate will initially be considered a legal parent of the couple鈥檚 future baby, meaning the Marino-Halls will need to adopt the child in order to both become legal parents.
