BORN AND raised
In December 2017, Hannah Leslie became pregnant with her sister’s child, one of an increasing number of babies being born by surrogate. Today, Harry George is a bouncing nine-month-old. Courtney George says, “It’s amazing that my sister gave up her body for nine months so I could have a baby.”
Each year, about 20 to 25 surrogacy pregnancies are approved by the Ethics Committee on Assisted Reproductive Technology (ECART). In New Zealand, surrogacies are an altruistic arrangement, which means the surrogate is unable to take any money from the intending parents. In what is a much-criticised law, the surrogate mother and her partner are the legal parents until the intending parents adopt the child.
A CLOSE BOND
Courtney and Hannah were born 16 months apart and have always been close. Now 31 and 32 respectively, they were each other’s bridesmaids and live around the corner from one another in Ashburton, Canterbury.
At 25, Courtney was diagnosed with
