Senator forced to have surrogate baby in Sydney

A SENIOR Labor politician and his wife have used a surrogate mother to have a child after ovarian cancer made it impossible for the couple to conceive naturally reports Sue Dunlevy for the Daily Telegraph. Labor's communications spokesman Stephen Conroy and his wife Paula Benson yesterday attended the birth of their baby daughter Isabella at a Sydney hospital. "Our baby daughter was born today to a surrogate mother who is a close friend," Mr Conroy said last night. Surrogacy is illegal in Victoria, where Mr Conroy lives, so the baby had to be born in Sydney. Isabella was conceived through IVF using an egg donated by a good friend of the Conroys that was fertilised by Mr Conroy's sperm.