Rick Wellisch changed the diaper on his 3-month-old daughter, Samantha, as his partner, Cary Friedman, and the baby's surrogate mother, Lura Stiller, looked on. Ms. Stiller, who lives near Dallas, was visiting the family at their home in Cambridge, Mass.

Excerpts from May 27, 2005
New York Times
By Ginia Bellafante.

"In December, Ms. Stiller gave birth to the baby, named Samantha, for Dr. Friedman and Dr. Wellisch, conceived with a donor egg and the sperm from one of the partners. (They chose not to know which.) In her decision to work with them Ms. Stiller is part of a small but growing movement of surrogate mothers choosing gay couples over traditional families."

"Hundreds of couples are finding ways to create families with or without marriage through surrogates like Ms. Stiller, who are willing to help them have children genetically linked to them and to by­pass the often difficult legal challenges gay men face in adoption."

"Within the closeknit world of professional childbearers, many of whom share their joys and disillusionments online and in support groups, gay couples have developed a reputation as especially grateful clients, willing to meet a surrogate's often intense demands for emotional connection, though the relationships can give rise to other complications within the surrogate's family and community."

"In the last 13 years, Ms. Stiller has had five children: one with her first husband, two with her current husband and two more as a surrogate."

"Her first excursion into the world of surrogacy, for a Florida husband and wife, left her feeling unappreciated and depleted, she said. A friend in the surrogate world suggested she find a gay couple through the agency Circle Surrogacy."

"John Weltman, a Boston lawyer, had a challenging time finding women to carry children for gay men when he founded Circle Surrogacy a decade ago. Today, he said, 80 percent of the surrogate mothers who come to him say they would be willing to work with gay couples, and half prefer to work with gay couples..."

"Most surrogates today, for heterosexual or gay couples, work as gestational carriers, meaning they bring children to term but not with their own genetic material. (Couples availing themselves of surrogacy typically get eggs from banks where donors are identified by their height, weight, College Board and IQ. scores.)"

"For Ann Nelson, 36, a mother of four in Wheeling, W.Va., an urge toward surrogacy began to surface in college. The first couple with whom she tried to work, a man and a woman from New England, asked her to sign a contract before insemination that stipulated she would eat no processed foods or re­fined sugars during her pregnancy."

"I thought, 'Have you ever been to Wheeling, W.Va.?' " said Ms. Nelson, who decided not to go forward with that couple.”Where was I going to find these things?

"I knew that surrogacy was not going to be a cake­walk, but I hadn't expected and wasn't prepared for this level of micromanagement."

She has since borne three children for two gay couples.

Some surrogates also say they find the sense of defiance in providing gay couples with children meaningful.

"In all honesty, there's a bit of a rebellious nature in me," acknowledged Shannon Klein, a mother of three in Cypress, Calif., who home-schools her children. "I know that there are people who wouldn't approve of being a surrogate for gay parents, and that has made it more intriguing."

Ms. Klein has borne two children for two gay couples, and she is pregnant with twins for a third.