Surrogate mother is a woman who agrees to be a biological mother to a child wherein conceiving is done through artificial insemination and in case of gestation surrogate motherhood in vitro fertilization method is used to conceive as the woman though may be fertile is not capable of growing the fetus and the fertilized embryo is then implanted into the uterus of a surrogate mother.
A number of issues have been raised regarding the ethical as well legal bearings of such babies. A number of times it has been found that during the initial stages the surrogate mother has agreed to hand over the baby but post partum the situation has changed when she has refused to hand over the custody of the baby as there is a emotional bonding with the baby in spite of the baby not being her own.
A number of European countries have laws that ban surrogacy. Countries like China, Italy, Germany, Canada, France, USA all banned surrogate motherhood in 1990 and there is no provision for surrogate mothers while in India this ban was enforced in the year 2002 but in spite of this ban there has been an alarming increase of surrogate mothers as this is one business where the private clinics are doing a rolling business.
Surrogate motherhood should be allowed or not is a question which even the developing countries are asking for in some countries surrogate motherhood is a business which involves billions of dollars. This is due to social pressures wherein couples are opting for surrogate motherhood to help them out.
What are the pros and cons?
There are many surrogacy agencies which allow you to find the perfect match but then they are expensive and so are not affordable to all. Traditional surrogate mothers and surrogacy agencies don’t work hand in hand as there are many people who prefer traditional surrogacy rather than going to such agencies. Surrogacy agencies follow a strict set of rules while independent matching does not follow any such rules and in case of independent matching people can negotiate which is not permitted in case of surrogacy agencies as the money matters are handled by a third party.
Health, surrogate mother’s background and all such details are checked out in case of surrogacy agencies and they take care to see to the convenience of both the parties i.e. the surrogate mothers as well as the intended parents while in case of independent matching none of these things are taken into consideration.
As each and every surrogate case is different and so are the needs of the intended parents and the surrogate mother different you need to sit down and decide so that you can come to a better understanding of the situation be it with an surrogacy agency or independently to see that both the parties benefit and nothing goes wrong.
As a intended parent who is in look out for a surrogate mother you need to sit down and take all the things into consideration regarding the baby’s health and future as not all are willing to hand over the baby after birth due to emotional bonding.
