Term Paper on "Gestational Surrogacy"

Term Paper 6 pages (2181 words) Sources: 9 Style: MLA

[EXCERPT] . . . .

Gestational Surrogacy

Even though it seems to be a practice of the modern world, whose fertilization is thought to have been affected by many factors, the concept of surrogacy is actually mentioned for the first time in the Old Testament, when Hagar, the maidservant of Sarah, lies with Abraham to bear a child for her infertile mistress.

The issue of surrogacy has been the cause of great moral, ethical and legal debate within the community. However, with increasing demand for infertility treatment and a decline in the number of children available for adoption," surrogacy appears to be the practice chosen by more and more couples who wish to become parents. During the time there have been found many acceptations for the term, but it has been commonly agreed that gestational surrogacy can be best defined as being "an infertility treatment appropriate when normal embryos can be formed, but it is medically desirable or necessary for these embryos to develop within the uterus of a gestational carrier (host) rather than the egg source (female partner or egg donor). Gestational surrogacy can be a highly effective treatment but, as with conventional IVF, success cannot be guaranteed. All of the risks and benefits associated with IVF need to be considered"

Even though in the recent years it seems that the authorities in many parts of the world have understood the reasons for which people choose this practice and, in addition, they attempted to offer support through law and several facilities - for example, in the state of Virginia the law is especially suitable for facilitating surrogate arrangements, and independent legal advice on this issue can be provided to appropriate couples through our consultant network -, there are still many reasons for which gestational surrogacy is still not an overall accepted practice. Among these reasons there might be encountered the ethnical issues it might create, the lack of proper legislation regarding the norm and cultural problems as well. Even though, the practice cannot be totally forbidden, because in this way many couples would be left without the chance of having their own children.

The subject of my paper would be centered on this statement. After presenting the types of surrogacy, I am going to develop in my paper the arguments which emphasize that gestational surrogacy is not the best type. The next step I would take would be to present a solution for replacing commercial surrogacy, and at this point I am going to come up with a brief presentation of non-commercial surrogacy and the reasons for which I consider it to be better than the former. The end of my paper would present a brief conclusion of all the arguments which would already have been stated.

As it has already been stated above, the practice of surrogacy is quite old and the term has been taken from the Latin surrogatus (substituted), meaning "appointed to act in the place of." When reporting to the issue of motherhood, surrogacy can be of two types: commercial and non-commercial, or "altruistic." The former method refers to the situation in which the party seeking a child agrees to pay a fee to the surrogate beyond the cost of her medical needs. On the other hand, non-commercial or "altruistic" contracted motherhood arrangements are those where the natural mother agrees to receive no payment or reward, even though it is hard to believe that a real non-commercial agreement is ever made; in most of these cases the two parts know each other quite well and that is why most oftenly it is mutually agreed that the commissioning party will pay the pregnant woman's medical bills.

Moreover, the practice of surrogacy is usually made in two ways: There are two major types of surrogacy: The first one, partial or genetic contracted motherhood - also known as traditional or straight surrogacy -, is that in which the gestational mother is impregnated with the sperm of the commissioning father by artificial insemination. In these cases, the woman who becomes pregnant is both the genetic and the mother that gives birth to the child; however, she relinquishes her role of social mother to the commissioning mother.

The second practice is that in which the gestational process is completed by the natural mother and it is also known as host or gestational surrogacy. Vitro fertilization (IVF) is usually used in this situation, and the intended parents produce an embryo that can then be transplanted into the surrogate mother for her to gestate and give birth to after nine months. In this way, the only genetically contribution would come from the intended parents and not from the woman that would carry the baby for 9 months, even though she is the child's birth mother. In some cases, particularly of infertility, this may be combined with the use of donor sperm or donor eggs in creating the embryo for transfer.

The latter practice is the one that has been condemned most of the times, and the reasons for this have been manifold; the one that I consider to be the most important refers to the lacunas encountered in the law stipulations regarding this subject. In the United States, for example, free assistance for those that decide to use gestational surrogacy has started to be put into practice, for both parts, but this action has started to be taken quite soon and it has not yet become a common practice in all the states.

On the other hand, many misunderstandings occur from the fact that the law does not stipulate the exact value of the material reward for the surrogate mother: "It is estimated that in the United States, the payment for a surrogate mother ranges between U.S.$10,000 and $20,000; the whole procedure can cost $45,000 to $60,000." Moreover, this is the main reason for which Canada's Royal Commission on New Reproductive Technologies rejects all forms of surrogacy arrangement under the rubric of objecting to commercial surrogacy.

In addition, this omission made by the law has been in several cases a proper moment for abusing the natural mothers. Therefore, they have not received a proper payment, as it had been previously agreed, for their service. As amazing as it can be, the greatest part of the surrogate mother are not poor, but, on the contrary, they are middle-class persons willing to help the persons who are not able to have their own children. In this framework, the abuse appears to be even greater.

In order to avoid such misunderstandings, in the United Kingdom it is an offence to pay a surrogate under the Surrogacy Arrangements Act 1985, but, on the other hand, it is allowed to reimburse expenses. This might be the solution for the U.S. case as well, concomitantly with replacing the gestational surrogacy with another practice of the kind.

Another reason for which this practice is not the best one is mainly the fact that, even though they have a democratic mentality, the American people are not yet prepared to accept children born in India, for example, under the jurisdiction of the U.S. citizenship. Such cases have many times caused bad perceptions and attitudes. Moreover, even though they were willing to help, the surrogate mothers have been the most blamed part, especially because they had accepted to give birth to someone else's child. Therefore, it seems obvious that another series of problems encountered by gestational surrogacy are of ethnic type.

A fact that is even more serious is brought into discussion by Douglas, Carol Anne in her work, "Women as wombs," where she mentions that Men perceive "surrogates" as reproductive prostitutes and they treat them in a similar manner they treat real prostitutes. The solution she proposes for these situations should be given by the feminist organizations, which should declare themselves against institutions and practices that are damaging to women.

Moreover, another misinterpretation of surrogacy, and a reason for which gestational surrogacy should be replaced as well comprises the idea that Surrogate motherhood are primarily defined in terms of their bodily functions which continues to subordinate their role in society.

I consider that all the facts presented above are sufficient reasons for which gestational surrogacy, the most common practice of commercial surrogacy, should be replaced by a non-commercial kind of practice. On the other hand, even countries such as Great Britain or Canada agree on the necessity of this practice, as a follow-up of the idea that surrogacy cannot be totally banished, since this would mean to take some couples the primary right to reproduce.

Moreover it is clearly enough that the non-commercial surrogacy would not have at its base any material reasons, since the only intention of the surrogacy mother would be that of helping her fellows. In addition, I consider that the non-commercial surrogacy would offer the future parents to chance to establish a close relationship with their baby from his or her early inception, as they would have the chance to stay closer to the woman who is bringing their child to life… READ MORE

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