Our gorgeous daughter is four months old. Ethical commercial surrogacy has changed our lives

May 12, 2026 — 3:30pm

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Sixteen weeks ago, our beautiful, healthy baby girl arrived. She was born a long way from home, in Reno, Nevada. With anticipation, my partner Hamish and I stood in awe as we witnessed our incredible surrogate give birth to our perfect baby, who arrived with smiling, knowing eyes from her very first moment.

We are some of the lucky ones. We cut the cord while our surrogate’s husband took photos of us all, smiling and swooning over our incredible miracle baby who we’d all come together to create.

No one bought or sold any babies. Our girl was ours to begin with. We shipped sperm from Australia and with eggs from our donor in Utah, we made embryos. We watched live on FaceTime as one embryo was transferred into our surrogate, who took great care of our baby as she grew in her womb for eight or so months.

Both these wonderful women had agency over their bodies and over every aspect of their decision-making. We all met to talk it through to make sure everyone was on the same page. We received counselling and signed contracts and agreed what our roles would be now and into the future. It was clear: this baby was unambiguously ours and everyone else knew their roles, with generosity and goodwill.

We asked why they wanted to help us. Both our egg donor and our surrogate had the same answer – family was important to them and they wanted to help a couple who couldn’t have their own children to start a family. Both women were financially........

© The Age