Legal Issues Related to Surrogacy MAMA BABY CAREAs much as surrogacy is the best option for infertile parents, this miracle comes with some legal bonding which if not followed may lead to strict actions by law. Surrogacy is basically the legal bonding between intended parents and the surrogate mother when a woman willingly agrees to carry the child of the infertile intended parents. There are two types of surrogacy i.e Gestational Surrogacy and Traditional Surrogacy, the method is almost the same in both types. But in Gestational one the surrogate mother doesn’t share her eggs, it’s the embryo that she carries in her uterus. As a result, the surrogate mother is not related to the baby by genetic means, but only by biological means. And when we talk about traditional surrogacy, only the sperms of the intended father are inserted into the surrogate mother where she utilizes her eggs to reproduce a child and is genetically and biologically related to the baby.
Surrogacy as it sounds, is not an easy process. Not because of the complications but the legal matters. This matter involves getting one woman pregnant who will carry someone else’s child for nine months, the finances and its allocations, the custody of the child when it’s born and so on.. These all facts give rise to the need for rules and regulations backed by Law of the country because the restrictions and policies for surrogacy vary country wise. And it is also true that it is not acceptable in many countries. However, it is also confirmed that over the last 7 years, the number of children born with surrogacy has been doubled. The reasons could be so many, the busy career oriented women make the best use of surrogacy and keep themselves away from pregnancy related stuff, or it could be the only reason why surrogacy was invented which is infertility.
Even after the birth of the child the legal guardian of the child remains the surrogate mother but then a document is processed by the law that (when signed by the surrogate mother) shifts all the rights of the surrogate mother to the intended parents. The two cases of Gestational and Traditional surrogacy are way different from each other but regulations still stay the same, the legal custody of the baby is just one sign away.
There are a number of legal as well as ethical issues about surrogacy. In some countries, there is no extra amount of money allowed to give to the surrogate mother except for only medical expenses. And if we talk about post pregnancy stuff, there is no compensation for it. In some unfortunate circumstances, when a surrogate mother fails to successfully give birth to the child, there is no compensation for that also, no medical support, no emotional consultation, in short, all the benefits will be taken over. If we talk about the heart of it, the child, there should also be some kind of security for it. The probability of any sudden incident is always high, and life is unpredictable. There should be financial security for the child in case if the intended parents die and the surrogate mother is not able to bring the child up. The chances are also that the surrogate mothers rejects to give the baby to the intended parents or vice versa, the intended parents reject to accept the child. These all issues clearly impose the need of proper laws in all countries about surrogacy, be it gestational or traditional.