California Couple Shares Surrogate Story in Wake of Thailand Controversy

When news broke earlier this month about baby Gammy — the newborn with Down syndrome who was left (or kept) in Thailand with his surrogate mother while his intended adoptive parents returned to Australia with his twin sister — many were shocked. But not Keston and Andrea Ott-Dahl, a San Francisco couple who had a similar experience right here in America.

“We were not surprised, because it happened to us,” Keston, 48, told Yahoo Health. She’s referring to the roller-coaster ride she and her partner, Andrea, had in 2012, when Andrea agreed to be a surrogate for their friends, another lesbian couple who wanted a child but was having trouble conceiving. So she agreed to become impregnated with the sperm of their friends’ gay male friend, and they were off.

“I had no reservations about it,” Andrea, 32, told Yahoo Health, “because I’d already had two kids, and we were looking forward to the day when we’d have less responsibility. I just saw our friends who wanted this dream so badly, and I thought it would be easy...