Gay couple in New Zealand crowdfunding for IVF so they can start a family
Ryan Curran and Jerome Pacquing are crowdfunding for IVF treatment. (Give A Little)
A young gay couple in New Zealand who want to start a family are seeking $25,000 in public donations so they can have a child using IVF.
Ryan Curran, 27, and Jerome Pacquing, 25, from Tauranga, New Zealand, have started a public appeal to raise money so they can have their first child.
Same-sex couples can’t access publicly funded IVF treatment in New Zealand.
Curran and Pacquing – who have already arranged for an egg donor and surrogate – say they need $25,000 for the IVF, consultation and necessary approvals.
Curran said that the couple are finding the process frustrating and complicated.
“Mainly because there is so much invested, both emotionally and financially. However our desire to have children outweighs all of that,” he told Daily Mail Australia.
The couple, who have been married for more than a year, said they had considered adoption, but “we know that the number of children adopted out in NZ is very little and many people wait years before being considered.”
“International adoption isn’t an option for us as all countries that adopt out to New Zealand do not allow adoption to same-sex couples,” Curran added.
New Zealand couple have been together three years
According to their fundraising page, the couple have been together for three years and purchased their own home earlier this year.
After this, they “very quickly realised that something was missing and that was a little Curran-Pacquing child running around.”
The crowdfunding page says that one of them works in healthcare and the other in the New Zealand tourism industry. So far, the couple have raised just $505 of their $25,000 goal.
Curran told Daily Mail Australia that seven same-sex couples have had babies through IVF in New Zealand.
One of them is Tamati Coffey, who is a New Zealand politician, he said.
“I believe that it wasn’t easy for any of them as they had to go through all the legal requirements of IVF, surrogacy, and adoption,” Curran added.
Curran said that if they don’t raise enough money through the crowdfunder, they will save up instead.
“This just means that we would have to wait longer ,which is okay,” he said.
