FATHERHOOD BY A NEW FORMULA: From the Washington Post

It's a feeling the wealthy Washington entrepreneur likens to "stepping off into thin air," a gut-churning, middle-of-the-night realization that his life-changing choice is based on "some really big leaps of faith."

But most of the time, the single gay executive said, becoming a father using his sperm and eggs donated by a 24-year-old woman he met once in a downtown Starbucks to create embryos that were implanted in the uterus of a 22-year-old surrogate mother he barely knows, absolutely seems like the right thing to do.

It was, he said, the culmination of increasingly urgent soul-searching that accelerated as he hurtled toward 50.

"I've always loved children and I thought, 'What am I waiting for?' I want somebody to love me and I want somebody to love," said Scott, who agreed to be interviewed on the condition that his last name not be published because he was concerned about the reaction of some business associates.

After the demise of a long-term relationship, Scott decided that he had the means and the motivation to become a single father. He rejected adoption because he wanted his own biological child. Instead Scott embarked on a two-year process, fraught with uncertainty, that will cost him $100,000 by the time he takes the baby, due in late June, home from the hospital.

Scott found his donor and surrogate through Creative Family Connections, a three-year-old law firm with offices in Tysons Corner and Bethesda. The firm often serves as a broker for would-be parents, finding both egg donors and surrogates and handling the associated legal work.

"We believe that everyone can build a family, and that's what we try to help people do," said the firm's founder, Diane S. Hinson. A Harvard Law School graduate, Hinson stopped practicing communications law to start the firm, a move she said was prompted by personal experience. Several years ago when she was single, Hinson adopted a baby, which she calls "the best thing I ever did." ...

Some medical ethicists say that while the desire of gay men to father children is understandable, the technology required to create such children raises a host of thorny issues society has been slow to address. Few states, they note, have passed laws governing the practice of surrogacy or egg donation. ...

To minimize the possibility of future legal problems, Hinson said she works solely with gestational surrogates: The woman who gives birth is not the egg donor and has no genetic link to a baby.

Egg donors are usually paid $7,500, while surrogates receive $20,000 for a single baby and $25,000 for twins. All expenses, including fees for outside lawyers to represent the interests of each woman, are paid by the prospective father. Egg donors and prospective parents are not told each others' last names to minimize the possibility of claims of custody or financial support. ...

"It was very important to me to look the egg donor in the eye," said Scott, who met with five candidates. A 90-minute meeting at Starbucks, he noted wryly, is "not a lot to choose the mother of your child."

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