Ethical and Legal Dilemmas of Surrogacy
Christie Blackwell
HCA 322
Dr. Nine Bell
June 17, 2013

Ethical and Legal Dilemmas of Surrogacy Many individuals have a life plan consisting of college, marriage, and then children. After numerous methods of conception, many couples are still unable to conceive a child. A woman who enters into a contract with a couple, agreeing to carry and birth a child, then hand that child over to the contracted couple, who is often unable to conceive own their own naturally is considered surrogacy (Pozgar, 2012). Surrogacy raises many ethical and legal issues for all parties involved. Is it moral or immoral to enter into an agreement with a woman to birth a child for money? What are the
How will there relationship affect the child of the couple? A recent article in the American Bar Association’s (ABA) journal tells of a same-sex couple whose case is similar to that of the Baby M case (Hansen, 2011). The United States, unlike many other countries have no policies governing surrogacy, as it is a state-by-state policy (Hansen, 2011). In places such as India, commercial surrogacy is legal and often seen as a popular place of fertility tourism because the costs are one third of that in the United States (Saxena, Mishra, & Malik, 2012). In some cases, children have been placed in orphanages until paternity has been established or in some instances disowned when a child is conceived naturally by the parents, as with Ishmael from the Bible. Women of poor and illiterate backgrounds stricken by poverty are sometimes coerced by intermediaries or spouses to become surrogates. In such cases, fidelity among the couple has been cast aside. The women may feel that they cannot trust their spouse to stand by them if they do not comply with their wishes. Unlike the United States where psychological screening and legal counseling is mandatory to be surrogates, in India women are placed in hostels for the duration of their pregnancy by recruitment commercial agencies (Saxena, Mishra, & Malik, 2012). Back to the case of Baby M and the same sex couples, who after waiting for their buddle of joy begin having legal issues. It is important to know that the surrogate