The presenter confided Sunday in the show "7 to 8" of TF1 on his choice to go through surrogacy with her husband to become "dad". He explains his approach in a book, "What does my family have? To be published this week at Grasset.
Has paternity changed it? "If you ask me what I am, I am first dad," says journalist and host Marc-Olivier Fogiel, father of two daughters born to a surrogate mother in the United States, in an interview Sunday at the magazine " 7 to 8 " , on TF1. At the time he made this choice, there was no open adoption for same-sex couples.
As the debate on family models starts again, after the announcements of the National Consultative Ethics Committee (CCNE), the facilitator looks back on his journey in a book ( "What's my family?" ? " ) To be published this week at Grasset.
The Ethics Committee opened the way in late September to the extension of medically assisted procreation to couples of women and single women, but remains opposed to surrogacy (gestational surrogacy), especially for homosexual men.
In his book, the animator goes to meet other families who have used the GPA, a topic that particularly worries the supporters of La Manif for all.
Confronted in the past by anti-GPA protesters, he believes he "learned to live with" . "Fortunately, I was confronted with other controversies not to over react," he says.
Father of two
The facilitator and her husband used this procedure in the United States and became the only parents of two girls after a long administrative process. He recalls that at the time, adoption was not open to same-sex couples.
"The story is extremely simple. My daughters know how they were born. Many people ask them, (the elder) answers 'you see well that I have two dads', " says the host, initially reluctant.
Having used a surrogate in the United States, Marc-Olivier Fogiel and her husband are now fathers of two daughters, Lily and Mila. He tells of his fight to build his family. @FogielMarcO
Sunday at 19H30 on @ TF1 pic.twitter.com/sBcxPbcVph
"I did not see how, at the end of a pregnancy, you could take a child away from a woman who had worn it, without any trauma somewhere , " he says. Once decided, the couple chose a donor in the United States and then found a surrogate mother, already having children, as required by law in the United States. "She is compensated (and ...) has touched about 18,000 dollars," he says, for a process evaluated "roughly, more than 100,000 euros" , including legal fees and medical expenses.