Surrogacy: Not the Mom Just the Stork

Surrogacy: Not the Mom just the Stork

Technology is a major part of people's lives in today's world. Due to this increase desire for technology it is always advancing and is an influential factor on lives. In medicine there is always a search for better technology, newer drugs, and more efficient procedures. However, with new advances brings new opinions and problems. Among new reproductive advancements is surrogate motherhood, which has caused much controversy. Some feel that surrogacy is immoral and others view it as a way for infertile couples to become parents. I will argue that surrogacy is permissible because women are not forced into surrogacy; they choose whether or not to become a surrogate. In order to sufficiently argue my stance I will provide arguments that are against surrogacy along with their rebuttal. To successfully argue my stance I will use the arguments discussed below.

Surrogacy is the act in which a woman agrees to bear a child for another woman who is unable to do so herself (Niekerk and Liezl 1995). Typically the woman who is incapable of bearing child is married with a willing male donor and surrogacy is viewed as a last resort solution. The surrogate will conceive the child and carry it to term and then hand the child over to the couple. In some cases the woman who decides to be a surrogate is a family mother or close friend who wants to help the couple with their desire to have a child. These types of surrogates have only altruistic motives and have the best interest of the couple in mind. In most surrogacy cases an agreement is made with a woman unfamiliar with the couple and pay is offered as a motive. In 1996 the American Bar Foundation conducted a study in which they found that the typical surrogate mother was twenty-eight years old, married, working full time, had children of her own, educated, in good health with a supporting husbands. They also found that these women were in the middle income range, had positive experiences with their past pregnancies, and while money was a factor decided to be surrogates due to the desire to help (Spitz, 1996).

There are two different types of surrogacy; the first type is ovum surrogacy in which the willing woman donates her egg and womb. In an ovum surrogacy a woman's egg is fertilized, through artificial insemination, by the sperm of the male partner. In this case the surrogate is the genetic mother of the child, but promises to give up all rights when the baby is taken by the couple. The other type of surrogacy is gestational surrogacy in which the surrogate is only donating her womb. In this scenario the process of in vitro fertilization is used to implant a fertilized embryo from the commissioning couple's egg and semen into the surrogate's uterus. In this case the woman does not have any genetic ties to the baby and is only performing the function of gestation for the couple.

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