Surrogacy is the defined as the agreement, often supported through a legal agreement, where a woman agrees to carry, labor, and deliver for another person or people, who will be the child’s parent after birth. There are two types of surrogacies, traditional and gestational. Traditional surrogacy uses the surrogate's egg for conception. Gestational surrogacy is performed by IVF, transferring embryos with eggs from the intended mother or donor. Gestational surrogacy is used a lot more because it provides the most legal protection for the intended parents and the surrogate themselves. It's up to the intended parents and the surrogate to come to an agreement on how the surrogacy will play out. Many people believe that surrogacy is exploitative and is raising concerns. Surrogacy gives couples an option to be able to start a family. However, surrogacy can cause psychological burdens on the surrogate mother.
During a study about the psychological well-being of surrogate mothers conducted in India, they found that the surrogates had higher levels of depression compared to their comparison group of mothers. The cause they found for this higher depression in the surrogate's post-birth, was the low social support during their pregnancies. They found this could have come from hiding the surrogacy or the criticism from others. A qualitative study was conducted which included 10 surrogate mothers in Europe. This study found that depending on the surrogate's cultural background, they showed differences in empathy, anxiety, depression, and attachment to the baby they were carrying. According to a surrogacy research report given to the New York Legislature, it found that psychological research is limited in the U.S. based on the protection of the psychological well-being of the surrogate mothers.
Surrogacy involves ethical and moral dilemmas because the intended parents seek out a woman, or surrogate, to carry a baby for them, usually in return for financial compensation.
Surrogacy is causing changes to the family structure, family relations or other social institutions, ethics, and religion. Surrogacy has created pregnancy as another source of commercial avenue. This affects poor women the most. Surrogacy also brings the class inequality to light. Whereas higher class women seek out the poor women to bear children for them, but not vice versa. Surrogacy has also hindered on adoption, which means more couples are seeking out surrogates rather than adopting already existing children.
Surrogacy can also cause problems to rise in terms of parenting. There can be the genetic mother who donates the egg, the surrogate mother who carries the baby for nine months, and the intending mother who receives the child and raises them. All three of these women can claim motherhood or custody of the child.
Surrogacy does not have ethical grounds as it involves commercial use of the woman's reproductive capacity. There are contracts and conditions the surrogate mother might have to meet depending on the couple, but this can violate the integrity or the dignity of the surrogate.
During a study conducted in Iran, they concluded that the emotional experiences of surrogate mothers were influenced by ethical, cultural, and national components. Knowledge and recognition of these emotional experiences can help find solutions to these problems. Surrogates believe surrogacy takes a special type of person. They convince themselves they “know” they can go through with it. They must be able to grasp the concept that the baby they are carrying is not genetically theirs, speaking in terms of gestational surrogacy. Many surrogates are relatively young and do not understand the consequences they could face or the regret they could feel.
Women who are surrogates are at risk for depression following the birth of the child. they may be excited for the intended parents, but they have to deal with the loss of the baby. This is why it is very important to
A) Meet with a healthcare professional
B) Seek surrogacy counseling
C) Establish boundaries and expectations for post-birth contact
Most people who tend to do surrogacy should try to invest in some pre-surrogacy counseling and keep legal contact with each other. Not all surrogates who go through this process shouldn't be doing it for the money. Reason being would be they have to realize that they are carrying another persons child within them so they can't go out doing things that may hurt the baby. The surrogate, also, has to prove that their mentally and physically healthy enough to carry the baby. These facts reach out through all of the types of surrogacy, including traditional.
Depending on what state or country you live in, surrogacy may be illegal to perform. This practice is legal within the U.S., but it’s not federally regulated so many of laws about it change throughout state to state. For example, Wyoming has no regulations and legal precedents at all while Michigan imposes a prison sentence to five years and a $50,000 fine for any commercial surrogacy used. Many countries do have laws that are heavily against surrogacy and require for people to move in order to have this process done. If this process is done, most children are given a U.S. passport regardless of the citizenship of the Intended Parents. Although, if this process is done out of the U.S., then it's a major custody battle from there.
The laws are also varies internationally as well.
All of these poll questions below are questions that have been frequently asked about for Surrogacy! We encourage to hear your opinion on some of these questions!
