Over 90 million married couples in the world today are unable to naturally bear children, this report is according to the World Health Organization. Statistics point out that the issue of procreation with this population is very acute and is gradually getting worse.
However this statistics calculate may not the into consideration couples who are unmarried or people who choose to become single parents. It is true that industrial society brought with it lots of problems, but at the same time is provided solutions to these problems to make life easy.
Some of the solutions brought by the industrial society includes the various reproductive technologies that now allows childless families to give birth to children and also improve the demographic situation all around the globe.
One of the new reproductive technologies is surrogate motherhood.
What is surrogate motherhood?
Surrogate motherhood is simply an assisted method of reproduction where by 3 individuals are involved in conceiving and giving birth to a baby.
- There will be a genetic father who is the person that provides the sperm for fertilization and someone who is willing to take on the responsibility of a father after the child is born.
- There is also a genetic mother who will be the person to provide her egg to be fertilized and this person will also be willing to take on the responsibility of a mother after the birth of the child.
- The surrogate mother would be a female of child bearing age who will agree to gain fully or ultra stickly carry and bears a child using the biological substances of both genetic parents this person will not claim responsibility for the child afterward. Meaning she does not have the right to play the role of biological mother to the child.
However, there are cases where surrogate mothers may become a genetic mother at the same time. After a child has been born via a surrogate, the genetic parents are registered as the child’s legal parents.
A lot of times sorry he is a method used to overcome infertility problems in couples who are married, and they discovered the woman is incapable of bearing a child due to medical reasons.
Surrogacy maternity can only happen when using extracorporal fertilization in gynecological hospitals where there is relevant expertise.
An egg cell fertilization will be transferred into the uterus of the surrogate mother during the first three to five days of the baby’s development.
Thus, you will not be far from the truth if you say surrogacy is an agreement between a married couple and a female who has to conceive and bear a child.
The surrogacy process can be possibly called a form of childbirth outsourcing in a lot of cases the surrogate mother is given monetary compensation, and such kind of surrogacy is called commercial surrogacy.
Non-Commercial or ultra stick surrogacy is one that does not involve payment or any form of material benefits apart from reimbursement of expenses that are linked to the pregnancy such as feeding and medical care.
Sometimes it is also possible for a surrogate mother to be reimbursed for costs related to things like loss of wages or even being offered compensation for the pain and physical suffering involved with carrying a child and bearing it.
There are two distinct types of surrogacy the traditional surrogacy and gestational surrogacy.
The primary difference between a traditional surrogacy and gestational surrogacy is that usually a surrogate mother is not supposed to have any genetic connection with the unborn fetus whereas in the case of a traditional surrogacy there is a connection.
A traditional surrogate mother would accept sperm from the alleged father and carry the child to term. Thus there is a genetic relationship between the mother and child.
In several countries around the world that has been mentioned that traditional surrogacy has been banned those countries include Ukraine.
It is vital that there is a written agreement or a signed contract with a surrogate mother so that it would show all the subtleties liabilities and responsibilities of each of the parties that are involved in the surrogacy process.
Plenty of countries lack both irrelevant surrogacy law and nationally approved surrogate motherhood policies.
Despite the fact that the question of surrogate motherhood has been considered in the Council of Europe as well as some other countries parliaments up till date there is no general solution about the international implementation of any common legal provision.
You can easily pinpoint the complexity of legal issues that are related to assisted reproductive technologies by looking at the diversity of approaches to solving this problem on the part of foreign states and regional organizations
. Adopted policies and laws range from a complete ban on surrogacy to the establishment of a comprehensive legal framework that is designed to take into account the interests and rights of all the parties involved.
In some other countries relations between the people interested in the implementation of surrogacy I usually formalized by relevant agreements.
As a rule, the agreement implies that the surrogate mother agrees to fertilize the donated egg in exchange for maternal compensation and she must carry the child to do term but subsequently allow the child to recite permanently with its intended parents.
There are also countries where surrogacy is only allowed under certain conditions. In Israel for example, surrogacy is only permitted in cases where the surrogate mother does not have any form of genetic relationship with the fetus the surrogate mother must also not have any form of genetic relationship with the parents and must belong to the same religion as the child intended mother.
The surrogacy agreement must be approved by a committee consisting of doctors religious leaders and social workers. Even though some monetary compensation is permitted the legal agreement must be noncommercial and altruistic.
All the parties to the contract have to be Israeli citizens. There are also controls the surrogate motherhood is frowned upon and seen as a legal because it contradicts the legislation on adoption and also violates the inalienability of the human body.
This goes to show that the idea of surrogacy is seen differently in different countries all around the world and for you to engage in this medium of child reproduction, you would have to get relevant information about what a particular country’s stand is on surrogacy.
