Should Surrogate Motherhood be Allowed? Essay -- essays research paper

Surrogate Motherhood is when virtuoso women carries to termthe fertilized egg of another adult female. This procedure is chosenby married couples who erect not conceive a child in the naturalway. In some occasions the mother may be able to produce anegg, but has no womb or some other physical problem whichprevents her from studying a child. Whether or not the husbandcan produce a large amount of sperm is not a problem. Once theegg and sperm argon combined in a petri mantrap fertilization is verylikely to occur. The couple will then choose a substitutemother and make an agreement in which she will carry the babyand release it to the genetic parents after the birth. There arefour different kinds of surrogacy arrangements. TotalSurrogacy is when the woman bears a child that has been formedfrom the gametes of another woman and man and implanted in herbody. Partial Surrogacy occurs when the birth mothercontributes the ovum and the sperm is introduced by artificialinsemination. She is a biological parent of the child. CommercialSurrogacy way of life a business-like transaction where a fee ischarged for the incubation period. Lastly, there is aNon-Commercial Surrogacy in which there is no formal contract or both payment to the birth mother. It is usually an arrangementbetween close friends or family members.(1-10)There is no federal policy on the issue of surrogacy, all fifty states have been left to decide theses issues themselvesand create their own policies. The majority of the states havenot yet legislated on this subject. Those states that have takenpositions differ greatly from one another, such as Californiaand Virginia, who have taken opposing viewpoints California isthe state that is the most sympathetic to the genetic parents. Under California law surrogacy agreements are enforceableand the genetic parents are given all level-headed parental rights tothe child. In Virginia, all effective parental rights to the child aregiven to the permutation mo ther. Who is the legal mother? In thecase of Johnson v. Calvert, in Virginia, the surrogate motherwas found to be the legal mother of the child. If this casewould have taken displace in California, the biological mother isthe legal mother. So it really depends on which state the act ofsurrogacy is taking place to name the legal mother. Arecontracts for surrogate motherhood enforceable under American law? Again, i... ... bothexpert medical and psychological evaluations. Another majorquestion that arises is whether or not the missionparents have the right to tell surrogate mother how to live? Can the couple ban smoking, control alcohol, and othersubstance intake? These issues need to be taken into mind beforechoosing a surrogate mother and needs to be stated in thecontract.(1-2) In conclusion, surrogate motherhood raises many legaland ethical dilemmas, especially that of who the legal mother is. Surrogate motherhood dramatically alters society norms andcreates many different legal viewpoints. But no matter whichlegal body is dealing with this issue, they all face the same moraland ethical dilemma that a child born out of surrogacy has abond with both the genetic mother and the surrogate mother. The bond between these two women and this child is permanentand cannot be changed by law. The law can only govern whichwoman has the legal right to raise the child. Works CitedCentre Points, Volume 1, No. 1, Article 2, SurrogateMotherhood and its Human Costs, Suzanne Rozell Scorsone,Ph.D. 1-2Johnson v. Calvert, 5 Cal. 4th 84, 851p.2d 776, 19 Cal.Rptr. 2d 494 (1993) 1-10