Surrogate Motherhood Essay Example

Surrogate Motherhood Essay This research paper is based on collection of information on the use of surrogacy in acquiring children for infertile couples, emotional, ethical, legal commercial perspectives of surrogacy and the possibility of legalizing surrogate motherhood.   A survey conducted to identify the motivation, the attitudes and feelings of surrogate mothers to surrender the child at delivery to the commissioning couples has been incorporated.   The possibility of legalizing surrogate motherhood has been detailed in the form of recommendations.Infertile couples were initially subjected to two alternatives; child adoption or live without children.   Adoption of a child is associated with some complexities ranging from the long processes of screening, requirement for paying a fee, satisfaction   of legal procedures, scarcity for children for adoption and a long waiting for the child to be adopted since the application time.   Most of the children available for adoption are either disabled, of advanced age or of a different race.   The readily available children could only be found in developing countries, whose adoption is more of child trafficking than adoption, an illegal process.   The adopted child has no single genetic trait to the parents, thus a less parental bond exists (Bonnicksen Andrea, 56).The advance in technology has brought about a solution to these problems through surrogacy.   Surrogacy refers to a situation of the agreement involving a woman to conceive a pregnancy and give birth for a commissioning couple. A more traditional form of surrogacy involves artificial insemination of the eggs of the surrogate mother with the sperm of the commissioning father rendering the surrogate mother to be a genetic and gestation mother of the child.   Surrogacy can also be conducted through InVitro Fertilization (IVF) where the surrogate mother is implanted with an embryo of the commissioning couple, rendering the surrogate mother to be a gestational mother.   If the commissioning father suffers infertility, a donated sperm can be used in IVF with the spouses’ egg to form an embryo (Sher, Geoffrey, Marrige, Virginia, Stoes Jean, 82).The entire process involves a reproduction that is assisted where by the couple who are not in a position to get a child of their own, bears one who has a biological connection to them.   The parents become legitimate parents to the child while the difficulties of adoption and adopting a child from a different race are overruled.Emotional IssuesMost surrogate mothers are guided by empathy and desire to share their inherent gift of conception and birth with their infertile commission couples.   The empathy extends to ending stigmatization in infertile couples who are downgraded for their inability to bear children.   The surrogate mothers are never hurt by surrendering the child to their commissioners and they are comfortable to relinquish the rights of the child.   Due to the need for a chil d by the commissioning parents greater warmth to the child has been evident in higher levels as compared to mothers who have brought up their children in a natural way (Wood, Carl, Westmore Ann, 148).A potential surrogate mother has to posses some unique qualities.   The mother has to withstand the following: ‘insemination, pain, unpleasant side effects, depression, steep disturbances, guilt, difficult remaining unattached to the child, intrusive or a loof couples relinquishing etc.’ (O’Nell, 157).Ethical Issues: Proponents viewsCouples hindered from getting children by infertility have the option of surrogacy.   There should be no barriers to their arrangements with willing surrogate mothers assuming that nobody is harmed by the arrangements.   The enforcement of adequate legal provisions is the requirement to the protection of the rights of the child.   Children brought up from surrogacy experience much love from their parents while their surrogate mo thers achieve satisfaction due to their contribution to fulfill altruistic concerns of the desperate infertile women.   The commissioning couple opts to surrogacy in a bid to maintain their marriage (Pence Gregory, 146).Ethical Issues: Opponents viewsWhile the interests of the commissioning mothers the outright delivery of the child, the interests required by the surrogate mothers and the rights the child should enjoy remains at a balance.   The rights of the child would be in danger in a situation where either the surrogate or the commissioning mother bleaches the contract.   Multiple births can also occur against the expectations of the commissioning couples.   Miscarriages and delivery of a disabled child are possibilities. The child is not allowed to exercise own rights in the process (Pence Gregory, 147).Compensation issues also posses ethical questions. Surrogacy overrides the rights of the child and any future circumstances may be detrimental to the child.   Due t o the compensation of the surrogate mothers, the concept of child trading arises which is unethical.   The woman also rents her body part while the donated sperms are harvested through masturbation and cryopreservation thus further raising more ethical concerns   Ã‚  The extra embryos of IVF are either â€Å"disposed, unthawed, donated to other   infertile couples or used for genetic research† (Perloe, Mark, Christie,84),   further raising ethical concerns and justifications of surrogacy.   Ã‚  The unthawing and degeneration of the embryos is a matter of yet more ethical concern.   Ã‚  The use of excess embryo for scientific research raises another concern of ethical controversy, i.e. genetic cloning (Perloe, Mark, Christie, 84).Any conflict between the surrogate mother and the social parents of the child may lead to the temptations of the surrogate mother to abort.   The consequences of this act have detrimental effect on both parties as well as violation of the child’s right and an offence to the state.   In a case where the surrogate mother has other children, they are further subjected to a dilemma whereby, as they expect a sibling, their mother goes to hospital and mysteriously comes back home without a child, contrary to their expectations.The entire process is synonymous to a monetary exchange of gestational services facilitated by overseeing clinic which is no less than prostitution.   The surrogate mother rents temporally one of her parts of the body.   The contract also empowers the commissioning father to overrule through rights of the surrogate mother to the child (Perloe, Mark, Christie, 84)Legal IssuesTrade in human is against the basic rights of human beings and thus illegal.   Natural bonds between the mother and the child are developed during gestation which is the right of the child.   These rights are denied the child since surrogacy requires separation of the child from the biological mother.   The rights of the father are upheld at the expense of the rights of the mother.Commercialization of surrogacyA sense of exploitation of the surrogate mother is brought up by the issue of compensation.   The expected annual income of most surrogate mothers is ‘$ 25,000’ (O’Neill, 196)     Ã‚  while surrogacy compensations are up to ‘$10,000’ (O’Neill, 196)     thus highly cherished.   This figure project an hourly rate of ‘$1.33’ O’Neill, 193) which is to the lower extreme considering the responsibilities involved.â€Å"The combination of desperate infertile couples, low income surrogate mothers and surrogacy â€Å"brokers† with varying degrees of moral scruples raises the prospects that the entire commercial enterprise can be exploitative† (O Neil 194)A future legal surrogacy is projected involving poor women especially from developing countries acting in surrogate homes that resemble brothels.   Th is jeopardizes the child’s, egg or uterus rights and their involvement in immoral and unethical trade which degrades the women to the level of prostitution (O’Neill, 196).Survey: A survey conducted involved attitudes, feelings and the morale inherent in the surrogate mother to relinquish the rights of the child to the commissioning couples.   The results led to rejection of one group and acceptance of another based on the following attitudes.The Rejected group lacked energy resources and time to commit for surrogacy.   Gestation for somebody’s interest was uncomfortable and if it had to occur, compensation is the factor behind motivation.   Handling over the child was associated with reluctance and incase this occurred, future feelings of loss were recorded with the women interviewed.   The women who suffered past divorce, uncertain about their social economic identity or mourning a deceased were also disqualified for surrogacy.   Those with negative t rust and honest and suffering from depression instability and immaturity were also disqualified (Tilton, Nan and Todd, Moore Gaylen,73).The Accepted Group expressed the reverse of above qualities. Their qualification for surrogacy was in addition to a proven feeling of personal gains from surrogacy and appreciable emotional encounter.   The ability to accommodate frustrating episodes and ability to tolerate the demands required by the process was also taken as a factor for acceptable potential surrogate mothers.Those whose past pregnancies were successful with physical and emotional joy and consequent healthy relationship between them and children qualified for choice.   Those who proved to have homes that can offer sufficient support during gestation also qualified for surrogacy (Tilton, Nan and Todd, Moore Gaylen, 74).Legalizing surrogate motherhoodSurrogacy is by far a good way to be used by couples unable to have children as compared to adoption.   The child is more gene tically related to the parents making the parents to be legitimate to the child.   To legalize surrogacy, the ethical, commercial and legal issues related to the issue needs to be addressed.   This can be achieved through altruistic surrogacy with the issue of compensation arising only to cater for medical and social well being of the surrogate mother.   The Legalization of surrogacy would be healthy where the surrogate mothers are blood relatives of the commissioning couples which has less commercial sense.   In case of sperm donations the donor should be a relative to the commissioning father to maintain high genetic fatherhood (Markens, 197).The use of IVF remains of ethical concern since there will always be excess embryos after implantation.   Though they need to be maintained to be used incase of failure in implantation, the overall excess embryos raises challenges as to their destiny; disposal, unthawing and degeneration, donation or use in scientific research (Mark ens, 197).ConclusionFamily life includes the rearing of children for many people and to those who cannot bear children, surrogate motherhood is the only legitimate option at their disposal.   The legalization of surrogacy requires the positive addressed through solution of moral ethical issues related to surrogate mothers such as heartlessness to the child and the rejection of the surrogate mothers which can be overcome by making surrogate motherhood a family affair. Surrogate motherhood Essay Example Surrogate motherhood Essay Surrogate motherhood is a practice that has been used for a long time but has been evolving in lieu of the technological advancement that has recently been witnessed. Definition of a surrogate mother is one who carries a child through gestation on behalf of another woman. The reasons why this happens are varied and hence elicit different responses. Traditionally, surrogacy involved a man donating his sperm to a woman other than his wife in order for her to give birth to a child adopted by the childless couple. However, with time the term surrogate motherhood has evolved to involve many other practices (Franklin S. Dec.2006). The question is, does surrogate motherhood help the society or harm? As stated above, surrogate motherhood has been around for a long time but only the traditional methods were used to get a child. With the advances made in science concerning reproduction, there has evolved other ways of getting children through surrogacy. It consists of either artificial insemination, embryo adoption and donation, gestational surrogacy or the use of the ovum from the natural mother (Maule L. S. Schmid K. 2006). Each of these is different and as such use different methods to bring about conception and consequently birth of a child. We will write a custom essay sample on Surrogate motherhood specifically for you for only $16.38 $13.9/page Order now We will write a custom essay sample on Surrogate motherhood specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer We will write a custom essay sample on Surrogate motherhood specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer In the early times, it would be used by childless couples but with the change in human sexuality it has come to include people who prefer to be homosexuals. They are now able to be parents of children who have their genes even if it is a family of two men or two women. Also with the rise of feminism, women who prefer not to get married are also using sperms from the sperm bank to get children. Initially one could only use the obvious method of sexual intercourse to get a woman pregnant but now there are sperm banks where men donate their sperms for commercial use. People in the world have different views concerning surrogate motherhood. Some are for it while others oppose it. Mostly it is for moral reasons that people oppose it but the legal aspect also sets in (McLachlan H. V. September 2008). Over time, there have been arguments for it in that it helps those who cannot be able to get a child of their own for different reasons. With the technology that is in place now, there are many ways to ensure that one gets a child and if they all fail then they can turn to surrogate motherhood. There are many people who view surrogacy as the ultimate gift from one woman to another. This is very common in New Zealand (Shaw R. 2008). When a woman cannot be able to get a child either due to lack of a womb or ovaries gets a gift from another one. This is seen as the greatest gift that one can give to another one. It is also viewed as a spiritual practice that enhances ones spirituality. In this way, a friend or relative can assist others get full satisfaction of having a family by providing them with the gift of life embodied in the child. There is opportunity for people to create kinship ties where there was no such hope. Kinship ties are very important to all individuals and hence to be greatly desired. Also, there seems to be a very special bond between grandparents and the children (Mander G. November 2007). When the children are unable to get children, the grandparents may be greatly affected and thus this comes as a solution. It is an opportunity for them to get a child who is genetically related to them instead of adopting a child who is not directly related to them (Hargreaves K. 2006). This is usually done through donor insemination and the resulting child is accepted by the entire family and thus a member.