A Deeper Look into Ethics and Laws Regarding Surrogacy
HCA 322: Health Care Ethics and Medical Law
A Deeper Look into Ethics and Laws Regarding Surrogacy When one or more persons contract with a woman to gestate a child than relinquish that child after birth to the person or couple is known as surrogacy. It is a course of action that goes outside of natural reproduction. For some, it is the only method of having children, extending family. Surrogacy has been stirring up many controversies over the years. Ethics, morals, laws, religious views, etc. have played a major role in the issues that follow the topic of surrogacy. Laws and regulations pertaining to surrogacy vary from state to state. Some states have no enforceable laws
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Some aspects may have been over looked, or the surrogate could develop issues once the child is born, hence the case of 'Baby M.' There is nothing in federal legislation in regards to surrogacy. Laws regarding surrogacy vary from state to state. As of this moment, several states prohibit acts of assisted reproductive technologies. In those states any surrogacy contracts are unenforceable, proclaiming all contracts void (Hansen, 2011). Some of these states consider acts of surrogacy a crime, punishable by law. While some states allow surrogacy by only to married couples or to couples where one of the intended parents is related to the child. A majority of the states allow surrogacy to take place. In fact they have allowed the surrogacy field to prosper (Hansen, 2011). These states do not have any regulations on surrogacy. Surrogacy contracts are binding just as any other drawn up contract. When entering into such a potentially controversial contract, lawyers should be present to discuss any issues, and to witness the agreement. All parties involved in surrogacy have legal rights. Ones that should not be over looked. For instance, all parties involved in surrogacy have a right to confidentiality. The right to privacy and confidentiality should be underlined in the contract drawn. The intended parents of the child as well as the surrogate mother must keep all information private. While information
Resembling so many other topics in this class, I continue to have mixed emotions about surrogacy. The topic goes back and forth based on the type, the legal issues, and additional concerns that are to be expected. After watching what Dr. Rae has to say about surrogacy and doing research, I am pleased to say that I am still learning and am truly amazed at how much knowledge and insight I am gaining on this topic.
Commercial surrogacy is the process in which a woman is paid a fee to carry and deliver a baby to term. Once the baby is delivered, the woman relinquishes all parental rights to the commissioning couple who exclusively raise the child as their own. Altruistic surrogacy, by contrast, is an arrangement where the surrogate receives reimbursement but only for the expenses that she may have incurred during the pregnancy. In this essay I will argue that commercial surrogacy should not be market-inalienable. I will start by outlining Elizabeth Anderson’s argument in “Is Women’s Labor a Commodity?” in which she offers a number of criticisms to commercial surrogacy. I will then outline objections to the argument and highlight how her argument is highly speculative and does not provide an adequate basis for the prohibition of commercial surrogacy.
Media has been both positive as well as controversial in terms of speaking about the topic, and making awareness on the issues surrounding surrogacy. The media has been good at creating general awareness in the community about the issues surrounding it, which helps to create public debate that fundamentally has lead to the changes in law reform.
Cases of this kind emphasise the tension between two significant policy goals: the child’s best interests, which must dominate the court’s determination as to whether to grant parenting orders, and the prohibition of commercial surrogacy. The former, naturally, prevails. In every published case, the Family Court relied on the evidence tendered by the intended parents indicating the foreign birth mother’s consent to the applications, even where some of that evidence was quite concerning; the birth mother’s lack of interest in parenting the child;and the satisfactory nature of the parenting arrangements achieved under the agreement, in concluding that the best interests of the child were served by making the parenting orders.The earliest published international surrogacy case is Re Mark (an application relating to parental responsibilities). The facts are fairly typical. A couple from Victoria entered into a surrogacy contract under which a woman in California agreed to bear a child for them; the ovum was supplied by an anonymous woman, and one of the applicants provided the
I read an article that was published on The Hasting Center Journal, called “The Case Against Surrogate Parenting”, by Herbert Krimmel, Krimmel takes a stand against surrogate motherhood arrangements because of the many ethical issues it causes, he argues surrogate motherhood, is a financial profit, there can be conflicts during the process, and is designed to separate in the mind of the surrogate mother. First, Krimmel argues that the reason a woman often or always undertakes the pregnancy is because of the money motive. He states, “The cause of this dissociation is some other benefit she will receive, most often money.' In other words, her desire to create a child is born of some motive other than the desire to be a parent. This separation
Australian law reforms have been adequately effective in dealing with surrogacy and birthing technologies. The NSW state reforms have effectively supported the changing values of society by aiming to achieve justice and avoid conflicts surrounding surrogacy, while the commonwealth is obsolete on effective laws to prevent surrogacy issues. As the demand for surrogacy and birthing technologies increases, issues surrounding surrogacy are more prevalent in society. Additionally, there is no Commonwealth law, meaning each state and territory has developed individual laws of surrogacy and birthing technologies, allowing for issues and challenges surrounding the protection and the rights of all parties involved.
Baby Business by Insight on SBS had a discussion about surrogacy in relation to a couple that had a baby though surrogacy. In the show it was said that most surrogate mothers have genetically babies, which the mother gives her egg and the father gives his sperm and the doctor inseminates it in the surrogate mother. Most of the everyday people have to the term “renting a womb” towards surrogacy whereas the Women Health Resources
Surrogate motherhood is considered the most controversial form of medically assisted conception. Surrogacy is defined as an arrangement by which a woman gives birth to a baby on behalf of a woman who is incapable of conceiving babies herself or is infertile. The issue of surrogacy has been running for almost three decades. Elizabeth Cane was the first woman in the United States to legally become a surrogate mother in 1980 (Chittom and Wagner). Surrogate births are illegal in many countries, including some states in the United States. For example, it is illegal in Michigan, Washington, Utah, Arizona, New Mexico, and New York, whereas it legal in California, Oregon, Texas, and Arkansas (Chittom and Wagner). According to the Organization of Parents Through Surrogacy (OPTS), about 22,000 babies have been born from surrogate mothers in the United States since surrogacy became legal in the 1970s (Chittom and Wagner).
Firstly, some people have chosen to agree with this type of practice because of it’s benefits to couples of whom can not conceive a child. Whether it be a homosexual couple, or just a couple who is infertile and can’t have children. (Surrogate Mothers: Not So Novel After All, 28-34) In addition, the women who do end up as surrogate mothers, end up feeling better about giving a childless couple, the gift of having a child. Also other advantages that can be taken into account brings us back to same gender couples who can not conceive a child on their own, these couples would be now allowed to have a child of their own. (Gay Men Who Become Fathers via Surrogacy: The Transition to Parenthood, 111-141) They would, of course provide their sperm or egg, to the mother. This is a more efficient way to get a child, rather than go with adoption of another
In their article “Cutting Motherhood in Two: Some Suspicions Concerning Surrogacy”, Hilde Lindemann Nelson and James Lindemann Nelson argue against the idea of commercial surrogacy. Their main argument revolves around the rights that biological parents owe to the children they bring into the world. This argument can be formulated as follows: 1) Bringing a child into the world makes a child vulnerable to harm, 2) Both of a child’s biological parents have duties and obligations to defend the child from harm, 3) Only biological parents can fulfill the duties to defend the child from harm and it is immoral for a parent not to do so, 4) Surrogate motherhood contracts require the biological mother to give up her parental rights, 5) Giving up parental rights prevents the biological mother from fulfilling her duties to the child, Therefore, 6) Surrogate motherhood contracts are immoral because the duties to the child are not met. This argument is, as any good argument must be, logically valid. It is impossible to disagree with the conclusion if the premises are true. However, this argument is unsound because not all of the premises are true. Biological parents are not the only people who can fulfill the duties owed to a child and protect them from harm. Surrogate motherhood contracts do not prevent the duties owed to the child from being met.
A surrogacy contract is a document signed by two people or parties that agree to traditional or gestational surrogacy, one side is getting monetary compensation while the other receives a child. Currently there is a sharp increase in the number of foreign inquiries into India in pursuit of finding a woman to be a surrogate, this can be seen as taking advantage of a poverty loomed country because the money is hard to turn away (Gentleman).The surrogacy market is estimated to bring in $445 million annually in India and is growing as the number of success stories (Warner).
Pande thinks the long-range solution is to relax surrogacy regulation in other countries so that people don’t need to leave their home countries to find surrogate mothers. She proposed an international model of surrogacy founded on openness and transparency on three fronts: in the structure of payments, in the medical process, and in the relationships forged within surrogacy.
According to the Issues & Controversies Infobase, “Surrogate” is a term that refers to a substitute, a person, place, or thing employed to represent or take the place of another. This term is commonly referred to a woman who agrees to carry another couple’s child in her womb. After birth, the surrogate mother parts with the baby and the child goes on to live with the parents in which she carried the baby for. This practice of surrogacy was widely unaccepted, however, the recent development of artificial insemination and in vitro fertilization has made surrogacy more feasible and accepted. This Issues & Controversies article shines a light on both the pro and anti sides of surrogacy and the facts to back up each side.
There are many issues in modern times that are on questionable grounds regarding the moral and ethical reasoning for such arguments. One of those ethical debates is in regards to commercial surrogacy. Surrogacy itself is a morally sound gesture; it is meant to be a way of a family acquiring a child that they would not be able to reproduce on their own, involving a third party. It is when the child is paid for by that family and the third person is compensated that the issues arrive. Should surrogacy be an available marketing resource? What justifies marketing a woman’s sexual capacities? In this paper, I will be discussing the argument presented by Debra Satz who is opposed to surrogacy, in the counter argument to support it.
Some view altruistic surrogacy as a form of exploiting the surrogate. There is no monetary compensation to woman placing her health and well-being on the line for another’s benefit. However, it can also be held that the woman knowingly entered into the agreement with full disclosure of the risks and benefits to her health and body. Again, autonomy and justice are extremely prevalent ethical principles to explore when discussing the topic of surrogacy. Same-sex marriage has become a hot topic in the United States in the last few years. The idea of raising a family by homosexual