Canadian Surrogacy WEBINAR

After celebrating more than 20 years as one of Canada’s top criminal defence lawyers, Cindy Wasser thought she was retiring in 2008 to become a mother to the first of her two daughters created with the help of an egg donor and surrogate. Driven by her difficult path to parenthood, she instead founded Hope Springs Fertility Law, to guide, protect and advocate for everyone building families with the help of donors and surrogates. She has since grown Hope Springs into a leading fertility law firm, providing legal advice and services to hundreds of intended parents, donors and surrogates from across Canada and around the world, year after year. With her background in criminal law, and personal experience with surrogacy and egg donation, Cindy occupies a uniquely revered position within the fertility law community. She regularly uses this influence to advocate for stronger rights and protections for intended parents, donors and surrogates within Canada, and has become well-known internationally as a respected leader in this complex and evolving area of law.

Dr. Librach is the Director of the CReATe Fertility Centre.  A graduate of University of Toronto, he completed undergrad, graduate and a specialty degree in Obstetrics and Gynaecology. Dr. Librach went on to spend 3 years at the University of California in San Francisco becoming a board certified Reproductive Endocrinologist and Infertility Specialist. Since 1991 Dr. Librach has been an Associate Professor in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology at the University of Toronto. He is a Co-Director of the University of Toronto Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome Clinic. He is the principal investigator in various clinical and embryology studies and researcher at Women’s College Hospital and University of Toronto. Dr. Librach has played an active role in presenting abstracts at various conferences and meetings. He is frequently interviewed for television, radio and print media.

For the past 25 years, Jan Silverman has worked in the field of reproductive health; supporting, educating and advocating for those requiring assistance to make their families. Starting off as a grass roots advocate, Jan co-founded the first Canadian infertility support network. After earning a second master’s degree, Jan established and ran the infertility support and education program at women’s college hospital in Toronto for 21 years. Jan was one of 11 experts selected to participate in the provincial expert panel on infertility and adoption. She is now in private practice providing counselling services to the Create Fertility Centre. Over the years she has provided services to the Gay Parenting Network, Daddies and Papas To Be and Dykes Having Tykes. Jan created her own family by adopting two (former) children.

Sam Everingham is the Global Director of Growing Families.  He has become one of the globe’s foremost commentators and researchers on donor & surrogacy trends and capacity. Through conferences, seminars and consulting he has assisted over a thousand singles and couples to plan safe and reliable routes to building families through surrogacy & donor IVF.

Sam has two daughters, Zoe & Ruby, via surrogacy and therefore is very aware of the issues, struggles and frustrations along the surrogacy path.  With a background in public health and research he is also the author of several books.