Surrogate crosses border to give birth to child with disabilities - paying parents wanted abortion

Heartbreaking saga is filled with wrenching decisions and their consequences

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Crystal Kelley was offered $10,000 to have an abortion after ultrasounds showed the baby she was carrying for another couple had severe medical problems

Photo by CNN

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Five months into her surrogate pregnancy, Crystal Kelley got bad news - ultrasound scans had revealed a series of disabilities. Tragically she and the parents came to different conclusions about what should happen next.

According to the Daily Mail, Kelley had been paid $22,000 to have the Connecticut couple's baby but when the complications came to light she fled across the country, having refused their instructions to abort it.

Kelley, 29, flew to Michigan to give birth to the child, leaving it there to be fostered, disregarding her original commitment to raise the child either by herself or by the intended parents.

The tragic tale reportedly began in August of 2011 when Kelley, who has two children of her own, fell into financial difficulties and decided to offer her services through an established surrogacy agency to a couple who desperately wanted a fourth child but were unable to.

The couple reportedly paid $22,000 to Kelley for her participation. An embryo the pair had left over from a previous round of in-vitro fertilization was used on October 8 and ten days later Kelley was pregnant.

According to the Daily Mail the new would-be mother phoned Kelley each morning to offer her morning sickness sympathy. She also bought Kelley and her two daughters Christmas presents and paid the monthly surrogate fee early to help her out.

'She said, 'I want you to come to us with anything because you're going to be part of our lives forever,'’ Kelley told CNN.

In February though, the atmosphere changed when ultrasound tests showed the baby was not developing as was hoped. Doctors suspected that the baby had a cleft lip and palate, a cyst in her brain and very serious heart defects. They couldn't even see a stomach or a spleen developing.

Then on February 16, 2012 their worst fears were confirmed. Physicians at Hartford Hospital said the baby would need several surgeries after birth and had only a 25 per cent chance of living a normal life.

A letter was reportedly sent to Kelley's midwife in which Doctor Elisa Gianferrari, a maternal fetal medicine specialist at Hartford Hospital, and Leslie Ciarleglio, a genetic counselor, outlined the surrogate parents' wishes.

'Given the ultrasound findings, the parents feel that the interventions required to manage the baby's medical problems are overwhelming for an infant, and that it is a more humane option to consider pregnancy termination,' they wrote according to CNN.

However, Kelley, who is staunchly religious, disagreed and said that 'all efforts should be made to give the baby a chance.'

The situation reportedly developed into an emotional stand-off between the parents and Crystal.

'They said they didn't want to bring a baby into the world only for that child to suffer. They said I should try to be God-like and have mercy on the child and let her go,' Crystal told CNN. 'I told them that they had chosen me to carry and protect this child, and that was exactly what I was going to do,' said Kelley. 'I told them it wasn't their decision to play God.'

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