"I need to make a comment here, perhaps this is not the correct place to write this, but here I go.....I was an Independent Gestational Surrogate...actually, the correct term for me would have been "Independent Compassionate Gestational Surrogate". I was a GS for close friend's. For us, we thought we could figure 'it/surrogacy" out without all the input from others....this would be our special journey and it was and although we have a happy and sad story as some would say, I would not do a complete Compassionate surrogacy again, nor would I ever do an Independent surrogacy again. (My journey lasted from April 1999 to August 2000, so it's been many years.) Thankfully, the clinic we were using by transfer #2 changed some of their guild lines for surros, so although we didn't use an agency, we had to get an attorney involved. After much consideration I realized it would have been better and EASIER in the long run had we used an agency all along. A "package deal", even if not as
inexpensive, would have made the process of everything easier to understand and follow. It's such an emotional and intimate process and even as good of friend's as we were with lots of support and information, there was a lot we just never considered and didn't know how to handle some of it.
So, I suppose my main point here would be: Independent Contracts work, but they should take MONTHS of planning and lots of research to get to the point of a signed contract. Oh, and make sure you have a Moderator that you can use in the event something happens....I can go on and on and on."
Laura
