The Los Angeles Times is making an unconventional bid for the Pulitzer this year. In the kind of multi-part, novella-length series that can only represent an investment intended to yield a gold medal, national correspondent Kevin Sack spent two years following a gay couple who want to become parents.
[T]hey had decided to have a child through a gestational surrogacy arrangement. They would pay one woman to provide her eggs and then, after fertilizing them in vitro with their sperm, pay another woman to carry the resulting embryos to term.
It was a quest that would take them to the frontiers of medicine, bioethics, technology and the law, as well as to the front lines of the culture wars.
They had considered adoption, but Chad, 33, and David, 35, wanted to participate more fully in the process of bringing a child into the world. They longed to see the first ultrasonic images of a tiny pumping heart and even to provide coaching in the maternity ward, just like straight fathers.
They also hoped to exert some control over their child's genetic makeup, and to create a biological link across the generations. Over the last decade, science and society had conspired to make it all possible.
The series so far walks a fine line between making the acquisition of a child sound like another example of those rich gays indulging their every whim. But it's (usually) well-balanced with an overwhelming amount of evidence testifying just how much these guys want to be parents, and how rare it is for queer moms and dads to have children by happy accident.
Chad and David wanted to do anything they could to make sure that both fathers would be viewed equally as parents. And they thought that might only be feasible if they kept the identity of the biological father a mystery....They decided the safest course would be to keep the secret even from themselves.
"In the ambiguity of paternity, I think there's an implication of equality," Chad said. "We'll both equally be fathers in the eyes of whoever we're talking to because we can't give them a definitive answer."
"The best answer," David said, "would be, 'Well, your guess is as good as ours.' "
The last of three parts won't be posted until tomorrow, so your guess is as good as mine how it all works out.
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