Surrogacy is changing the nature of reproduction for some modern American families. Women and couples now have a range of options that allow them to achieve a much desired pregnancy when it seems that all hope has been lost, but surrogacy offers even in the most impossible cases the opportunity to experience a pregnancy. The only difference is that they are not actually pregnant. To understand the nature of fatherhood in America today, one must consider surrogate fatherhood among the variety of reproductive options.
Surrogacy is the practice in which a woman carries and gives birth to a baby for another person. Usually this is a contract and the surrogate agrees to give up the baby at birth. The contract may or may not include a financial arrangement. There are two alternative forms of surrogacy: traditional surrogacy and surrogacy. Traditional surrogacy is where the surrogate mother donates her egg and is artificially inseminated with the sperm of the man who will become the custodial parent. In gestational surrogacy, the embryo (generally resulting from the sperm and egg of the future custodial parents) is implanted in the surrogate mother. Surrogacy becomes more confusing in some cases, as a donor’s egg and sperm are implanted into a surrogate mother.
Commercial surrogacy began in the United States in the late 1970s. An attorney named Noel Keane organized the first third-party surrogacy arrangements and opened a surrogacy agency. The term itself does not seem to have appeared until 1981.
Surrogacy quickly raised a number of ethical and legal dilemmas. Supporters of the practice argue that it provides infertile couples with a means of becoming parents. Opponents claim that surrogacy is nothing more than a form of child rearing, in which women are reduced to reproducers, physically and emotionally exploited by wealthy couples who take advantage of the financial need of the surrogate. Concerns have also been raised about the welfare of the surrogate mother after the child’s birth.
It wasn’t until the mid-1980s that surrogacy became a national talking point with the Baby M case entering the media spotlight. In 1985, William Stern and his wife Elizabeth decided that rather than face the risks of pregnancy, they would find a surrogate so that Mr. Stern could have a child genetically related to him. He hired Mary-Beth Whitehead, a working-class mother of two. The contract stipulated that, upon the child’s birth, Whitehead would, in exchange for $10,000, terminate all parental rights to the child, allowing Elizabeth Stern to adopt him. A daughter was born in 1986, but Whitehead decided that she could not honor the agreement. A legal battle followed in which the courts declared the surrogacy contract valid, thus awarding custody to the Sterns. An appeal later ruled that the contract was illegal and invalid, but it was decided that Baby M should remain in the custody of the Sterns, and Whitehead was given visitation rights. The case generated a lively public debate about the legality of surrogacy and the various definitions of motherhood. To this day, surrogacy remains illegal in New Jersey, where the case took place.
Since the 1970s, an estimated 35,000 children have been born through surrogacy arrangements. Surrogacy offers infertile, single, gay and lesbian couples, and many more, the opportunity to become parents. Surrogate mothers come from a variety of backgrounds. They can be married or single mothers. Due to demand, they are often Caucasian, although there is a growing demand for substitutes from other races. Surrogacy has been criticized for exploiting poor women of color, and in fact, the typical surrogate mother comes from a low-income background and, in the case of gestational surrogacy, may be of a different race than the parents. genetic (the belief is that a woman will be less likely to change her mind or be awarded custody of a child who is of a different race).
There are still many concerns about how to prevent the exploitation of surrogates, prevent a black market in baby carriers, and protect the interests of all parties involved, but some states are implementing procedures to safeguard surrogacy contracts. Despite the media controversy surrounding surrogacy, only a very small percentage of surrogacy contracts have ever been challenged in court. Most surrogacy contracts are fulfilled to the satisfaction of all involved. Surrogacy has given many couples the opportunity to experience pregnancy and childbirth, albeit from a non-traditional point of view.
