Surrogate claims gay fathers told her to terminate pregnancy 24 weeks after cancer diagnosis
A California mother has claimed she was told by the child’s future fathers to end her surrogacy at 24 weeks after she was diagnosed with breast cancer.
Brittney Pearson, 37, of Sacramento told DailyMail.com she was diagnosed with breast cancer at 22 weeks in May.
She says that after a full-body MRI revealed the extent of the disease, the gay couple who paid her to carry their child used legal threats to pressure her to terminate the pregnancy.
Initially, Pearson claims, doctors at Sutter Health Medical Center in Sacramento thought she could receive a form of chemotherapy compatible with pregnancy, and then be induced at 34 weeks gestation.
The fathers-to-be, who have not been named but are from Southern California, reportedly were happy that she received treatment and continued the pregnancy.
Brittney Pearson, 37, of Sacramento told DailyMail.com she was told by the child’s future fathers to end her surrogacy at 24 weeks after she was diagnosed with breast cancer
Pearson claims the gay couple who paid her to carry their child used legal threats to pressure her to terminate the pregnancy
However, when doctors realized that the HER2+ cancer had spread further than expected and that more aggressive chemotherapy would be needed to fight it, relations between Pearson and the parents-to-be broke down.
The unnamed gay couple, Pearson claims, wanted the baby “immediately terminated” and “wiped out” because they believed it had no chance of life.
They did not want a baby to be born before 34 weeks because they feared the baby would develop significant health problems, it is claimed.
The Center for Bioethics and Culture Network, an anti-surrogacy group that first reported on Pearson’s case, claims the fathers-to-be also tried to stop Pearson from carrying the child to term and then giving him up for adoption.
They allegedly told her they didn’t want their “DNA out there” raised by anyone else. DailyMail.com has been unable to contact the future fathers to verify that claim.
Pearson told DailyMail.com of the distress she felt after the fathers-to-be reportedly “threatened everyone with a lawsuit,” including Pearson, her agency and Sutter Health.
At one point, she claims, after being threatened with legal action, her oncology team said they weren’t sure they could give her chemo and should consult their own lawyers.
“It was frustrating because I wanted to give them a family,” she told DailyMail.com, “they said they cared, but they didn’t. I felt betrayed and heartbroken.”
Pearson’s sisters, Courtney and Ashley Pearson, have set up a Go Fund Me page explaining the circumstances surrounding Brittney’s diagnosis
Pearson claims doctors at Sutter Health Medical Center in Sacramento (pictured) came under legal fire from the parents-to-be
Jennifer Lahl, president of the Center for Bioethics and Culture Network (pictured above, left) said, “This case highlights many of the problems with contractual, largely commercial, pregnancies.”
The mother-of-four, who had successfully completed a round of surrogacy before, said she felt like “a rented womb.”
“The first thing I thought after I was diagnosed was I want to keep this baby safe and bring it to Earth,” she said.
“I would have been there, I would have given him every chance of survival, I had people ready to help,” she claimed.
Pearson told DailyMail.com that she had found a hospital that would deliver her baby, but would not comment on whether or not the procedure was inducement or termination and whether or not the fetus was born alive.
She would only confirm that it has since passed away.
“The baby was born on Father’s Day, my mom got to hold him and take pictures, but he didn’t survive,” she explains.
Pearson felt further distressed by the prospective parents’ decision to take the remains of the fetus and cremate them.
“I would have done things differently, I didn’t understand it because they didn’t see him as a baby at all.”
Pearson said she speaks out about her experience because she “never wants anyone else to feel that way.”
Despite her harrowing account, she hasn’t changed her mind about surrogacy: “I wouldn’t do it again, but I still think surrogacy has a great time and place, but [prospective] families need to be screened more often.’
Pearson said her surrogacy agency, whose name she declined to name, was “very supportive and still is,” but that the fathers had not contacted her since she had the baby.
Jennifer Lahl, president of The Center for Bioethics and Culture Network said of the caseI often say, there are plenty of reasons to make people see that surrogacy is wrong, harmful, and bad for women and children.
“This case highlights many of the problems with contracted, largely commercial, pregnancies.”
Pearson, who has four children of her own, ages 3, 5, 12 and 13, is currently unable to work while she receives treatment.
Her sisters Courtney and Ashley Pearson founded one Go to the Fund Me page to accept donations to help her through this difficult time.
‘Britt was recently diagnosed with HER2+ breast cancer. Britt and her family need our love and support during this heartbreaking time,” the sisters wrote.
Adding: ‘She is the main breadwinner for her family of 6 and is unable to work during her cancer treatments. Please help share this so they won’t have any extra stress!’
Sutter Health declined to comment when approached by DailyMail.com.
Are you the future fathers? Please contact alice.wright@mailonline.com