FOLLOWING A SURROGACY TREATMENT IN 2008 THAT HE AND HIS SPOUSE UNDERWENT, DORON MAMET-MEGED FOUNDED TAMMUZ INTERNATIONAL SURROGACY TO ENABLE MORE GAY COUPLES TO BECOME PARENTS. HE IS FATHER TO TALIA AND MATAN.
Have you found that gay couples with children face more problems in terms of public acceptance?
I live in Tel Aviv and Tel Aviv is a very gay-orientated city. There are some areas where you see more male couples with their children. If you’re in the right place you feel no issue about being a gay family although it is still a little unique. On the state level, there have obviously been great achievements in the past decade but it is still not equal exactly. I think there was a gap between the public opinion and the official opinion. And I think the public opinion is one step ahead of the official opinion.
Why not adoption?
First of all, I am completely for adoption. It’s a beautiful thing and when I first started my own journey my first meeting was with an adoption agency. However, I think adoption is less accessible, in comparison to surrogacy, and in many places you have to wait a long time. And there are always some people who want to continue their genes completely naturally. Lastly, with adoption usually you get a child who is a little bit older which some people will find important. Again, I am completely for adoption and I wouldn’t try and convince anyone to do surrogacy versus adoption. On the other hand I respect each person’s choice in whatever they feel is important for them - and surrogacy is a beautiful option as well.
Why choose Tammuz? I think we are the most established agency in Nepal and we are a one-stop shop. When I started 6 ½ years ago I was like a referral agency – someone would come to me and I would link them to a clinic or a surrogacy agency to find a surrogate and I would just be the coordinator. Nowadays everything is under my wing. I’m a partner at the agency for the egg donor which we bring from either South Africa or locally from Nepal. I am a partner in the surrogacy side and obviously take care of the surrogates and pay them. I am also a partner in the clinic I actually manage and am the main director of the clinic so we are giving a full solution and that gives us the ability to control better all the information and their parameters.
What gives you the most satisfaction in your job?
I pretty much feel we did a revolution here in the gay part of parenting. When my daughter, Talia, was born there were less than ten surrogacy children in Israel. Now, there are, I think, 400 or 500 and out of them 350 were done by Tammuz. You really feel the revolution here. Currently I’m very proud on the infrastructure we set up in Nepal, because we went to a green field country and we built it up there and we also pretty much care about the surrogate and make sure as much as we can that we do everything in the most ethical way.
But finally I think I’m just really proud for each and every child that is delivered by us and I am proud that I have so many clients who come back for their second child.