Dustin Lance Black Wants to Break the Stigma Surrounding Surrogacy | Lorraine

surrogacy was that always the way the two of you were going to go well I mean we've looked at many different options in the beginning but I think it became clear we both wanted a biological connection to our firstborn right who knows where we'll go from here I mean we might end up with 10 it takes 11 to make a full football team who does but you know Tom and Tom had lost his father who had lost my mom and and my brother and you start to yearn for that connection that goes from your past to your future and surrogacy was one of the ways we could do it and did you have that in America so we did we decided to go to America after we did our research so when we were doing a research it became clear that the law here is incredibly vague if it exists only very really yeah and in the US and in most states and in California in particular it has very clear law right and we thought I you know I'm a person who's worked with the law work to help change laws and I think this about the law good clear law creates good behavior but it also creates really clear understanding and we both thought listen there's all these risks in this let's keep ourselves our surrogate and our eventual child as safe as possible let's go where there's the best law because it's the most important thing you'll ever do change it oh my gosh the whole orbit of our lives has changed I'm up early in the morning I mean Who am I Wow and do you still have a contact with the this surrogate mummy yeah she's very much part of your like that's that's part of it and that's one of the misconceptions so when we first announced that we were having a child I I didn't realize there would be any backlash because I come from a place where it's it's fairly common and we very quickly realized people here have some trouble with it and that there were a lot of misconceptions there are some concerns that are valid and then there's some misconceptions one of them is that this is just a transactional thing that happens between intended parents and surrogates it's like you're buying a baby yeah yes and it's really not in in in the US where there is good law I'm not saying it's perfect or the best yet but where there is good law it they encourage you to build a relationship with someone who will become your surrogate anything you don't enter into this until there is a friendship there is a relationship there with her and her family and it's an ongoing relationship for the rest of your life your child born a surrogacy has a right to know where they come from and a right to have a relationship with the person who brought them into this world yeah and let me tell you after a year and a half of spending this most intimate beautiful time with this woman who's giving us this incredible gift are you kidding me do you think she couldn't get rid of us if she died that makes perfect sense what do you think needs to be done here in the UK to tighten up the law to make the law much more clear but all concerned well I'd say Parliament has taken a great step forward and they came out with the advice that they would give but what they don't do is honor the contracts made between surrogates and intended parents in courts of law right so in the u.s. when you make this very you sign these agreements that go through every possible outcome both very happy and and if anything happens that's upsetting and tragic or or difficult medical wise you know what's going to happen there's no fear of an intended parent saying you know what actually I don't want that child or a surrogate saying you know what I'm gonna keep the child these are enforceable contracts the agreements been made so you can get on with the business of family building and enjoy this time if you know you've got that piece of you got it here you can build those contracts and guess what their worth is less than the paper they're written on they are not honored in courts of law here so number one is just making sure these agreements can be honored in courts of law so that when you come to these understandings people are taking it seriously yeah they know it's enforceable and and that there's clear understanding clear understanding creates clear behavior you know it very much does and I can tell that you you two are extremely happy in the reaction that you've got overwhelmingly has been positive it's been very positive in the United States it's been it was a bit mixed here but I'm hoping that doing this podcast mmm that explores all of the positive aspects but also the troubles that could happen without good law that hears from the most passionate voices on both sides those for and against Cersei I'm hoping that that sort of exploration starts to dispel some of the misconceptions and that we can we can take joy and the people who are building their families most people who are still straight people using surrogacy I've had some some difficult circumstances medically it's why they go there and they're finally finding joy and I hope this country can come to a place where they can celebrate that family building joy with them because perfect sense to me common sense that's what it's a lot more do that we really do let's thank you so much and give our love to Tom I'm sorry angel in doing so so we're we're so proud of them and great to see you and we'll put a lot of smaller information about start you see on our website if anybody's interested or want to find out more and the differences between here and the US will book with and the website appreciate thank you thanks very much thank you very much you

Channel: Lorraine

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Keywords: lorraine, lorraine kelly, lorraine itv, lorraine interview, interview on lorraine, chat show, talk show, tom daley, dustin, tom daley and dustin lance black, tom daley baby

Id: 9tqqzbpKFoY

Length: 5min 13sec (313 seconds)

Published: Tue Dec 11 2018