Surrogate birth is the result of a legal arrangement in which a woman agrees to give birth to a child to be raised by others. The woman who bears the child is called the surrogate mother. In traditional surrogacy, the surrogate mother’s egg is fertilized through artificial insemination by the intended father. In gestational surrogacy, the intended mother’s egg cell is fertilized by sperm from the intended father in a laboratory in a process called in vitro fertilization (IVF). The resulting embryo is then implanted in the surrogate’s womb. Either before or at birth, the surrogate mother signs a document stating that the individual or couple with whom she made the arrangement will raise the baby. Surrogate births are usually sought by couples who are infertile or cannot carry a pregnancy to term.
Many legal and ethical complications can develop from surrogate births and threaten the child’s welfare. The surrogate mother may refuse to give up the newborn child even if she has made a legal agreement to do so. Other complications involve questions about whether the surrogate should be paid for carrying a child and whether the surrogate should have any parental rights. Some people worry that surrogate birth is essentially a commercial enterprise in which children and women are reduced to commodities that can be bought, sold, or rented.
In the United States, some states have banned surrogate agreements or do not recognize them as legal. But in other states and many countries, surrogate birth agreements are largely unregulated.
See also Adoption ; In vitro fertilization .
