As California goes, so goes the rest of the country. Right now, the California court system's advanced case law makes the state the "epicenter of the 'surrogacy industry,'" according to the NY Times. The issues being grappled with in family court--surrogacy, relocation, single parents, and others--are not easily decided, and they're turning up all over the country.
The Times reports on one difficult case, the custody battle between high-flying hedge fund investor Zack Bacon and Diandra Douglas (who lost her automatic seat at the Oscars to Catherine Zeta-Jones) over their 3-month old surrogate-born twin sons. Bacon's trying to move the case to NYC, but Douglas is fighting to keep it in California.
In the mean time, mere mortals like Planet Out's Jeff Bennett are having their surrogate child in CA, too, for the same reason: the legal system's experience in addressing various family configurations.
If anyone has some surrogacy resources they can recommend, let me know. Otherwise, I'll start digging around.
