Free Republic

SEATTLE - A ticklish business, artificially inseminating an elephant. With the help of high-tech ultrasound and computer gear, special protective clothing, wheelbarrows and not a little cooperation from Chai, a 26-year-old Asian elephant, Woodland Park Zoo officials hope the complicated process led by two German scientists will result in the pachyderm giving again birth, as she did four years ago. Chai got pregnant by natural means last time around, but it wasn't all candy and flowers. She had to endure the stress of getting shipped off to a zoo in Missouri, where some of her fellow elephants showed her hostility....

Using an Egg Donor And a Gestational Surrogate, Some Gay Men Are Becoming Dads -- and Charting New Legal and Ethical Territory But most of the time, the single gay executive said, becoming a father using his sperm and eggs donated by a 24-year-old woman he met once in a downtown Starbucks to create embryos that were implanted in the uterus of a 22-year-old surrogate mother he barely knows, absolutely seems like the right thing to do.

A woman who gave birth to a child months before entering a same-sex civil union in Vermont is appealing a court ruling that granted parental standing to her former partner. Cheryl Barlow, who says she no longer is a lesbian, was united with Keri Jones, both residents of Utah, five months after Barlow became pregnant by artificial insemination in 2001. But the relationship ended in 2003 after Barlow discovered Jones was seeing another woman. Jones then sued for parental visitation rights to Barlow's child and was granted favor by Judge Timothy Hanson in Utah's 3rd District Court in Salt Lake...

An ugly tug of war is raging over the fate of a 6-year-old boy being raised by a gay couple who won custody of the child in a landmark decision in 2000.

KOLKATA: A childless couple's quest for a baby has ended in the hopeful mother contracting HIV. In what is being termed by doctors as Asia's first case of HIV from artificial insemination, a woman fertilised with sperm from an unknown donor has contracted the dreaded virus. The woman discovered she was carrying the virus when she underwent a medical examination in August 2002 as directed by an NGO from which she wanted to adopt the child. The woman and her husband approached the adoption agency after six attempts at artificial insemination since 1997 failed. The case has stunned doctors of...

Japanese judge says there is no proof the woman's late husband consented to the use of his sperm after his death TOKYO - A Japanese court has refused to recognise a dead man as the father of a child born using his frozen sperm, in a case with important implications for couples turning to in-vitro fertilisation (IVF) here. The district court in Matsuyama, western Japan, turned down the paternity claim by the child's mother, saying there was no evidence that her late husband, who had leukaemia, had consented to the use of his sperm after his death. 'Public sympathy is...

Italy bans donor sperm and eggs Italy's Senate has overwhelmingly approved a law which bans the use of donor sperm, eggs or surrogate mothers. It also limits the right to artificial fertilisation to "heterosexual couples in stable relationships", excluding gay couples and single women. The bill, one of the most restrictive in Europe, has drawn support and criticism from across the party lines. BBC Rome correspondent Frances Kennedy says that the bill has pitted Catholics against liberals and men against women. The legislation, passed in the Senate by 169 votes to 90 on Thursday, will now be sent back to...

<p>The U.S. Supreme Court denied Monday an unusual request by a California inmate to impregnate his wife through artificial insemination.</p> <p>The justices left intact a federal appeals court ruling that inmates do not have a constitutional right to procreate.</p> <p>The action dashes the parental hopes of William Gerber, 42, who wanted to ship a special overnight package to his wife, Evelyn -- via a sperm bank -- containing a semen sample. He was willing to pay all costs.</p>