Research Paper on Gestational Surrogacy and Its Associated Moral Issues

Introduction

Conception outside the womb is among the greatest achievements of fertility experts. Individuals may not be in a natural state to carry a pregnancy to term or may not be willing. They may, therefore, hire another woman to carry a pregnancy on their behalf why the woman bearing the pregnancy becomes the surrogate mother. However, quite some ethical issues surround this matter due to the nature of its sensitivity. This essay thus seeks to elucidate the moral issues revolving around gestational surrogacy.

Is your time best spent reading someone else’s essay? Get a 100% original essay FROM A CERTIFIED WRITER!

Save 25%

In many countries, it is a requirement that gestational surrogates should receive money the intended parents to cater for expenses and risks incurred during the pregnancy. Individuals can take advantage of such compensation for their financial gain. Surrogates or potential surrogates may exaggerate their routine costs during their surrogacy. In the UK, a law was passed dictating that surrogates are only compensated in the presence of documentary evidence. Compensations should be genuine and additional payments cannot be made (Brinsden, 2003).

Surrogacy has been said to be a method of which the rich oppress the poor. From a moral perspective, intended parents should only hire surrogates when they are not in a position to conceive. This could be due to fertility reasons or other natural causes. However, same-sex parents hire surrogates to carry pregnancies on their behalf. Surrogacy, therefore, is seen as a platform that encourages homosexuality, an unnatural behavior. Wealthy parents who have natural ability to conceive also hire surrogates to escape the complications of pregnancy. This is regarded to be unfair to the subjects of surrogacy who bear the risks of pregnancy for financial gain. Enduring the pain of delivery to put forth a new generation for a mother completes the purpose of life, a step which some people choose to skip (Sills, 2016).

Great debate exists on whether commercial surrogacy or altruistic surrogacy is best. In some countries like Israel, it is not legal to practice altruistic surrogacy, but commercial surrogacy is permitted. In the United Kingdom and the Australian Capital Territory, commercial surrogacy is not allowed while altruistic surrogacy is allowed. Many countries lack clear laws guiding on the issue of surrogacy. In Canada for example, surrogacy agreements are not considered by judges in case of a court dispute. Judgments are made in the best interests of the unborn child. Explicit directions do not exist in cases where surrogate mothers refuse to part with the child after birth due to an emotional connection established during pregnancy. On the other hand, the genetical parents may decline to own up the child in the case where it is born with a disability(Reilly,2007).

According to Reilly (2007), the health of the gestational surrogate is another issue of concern. The surrogate mother holds the right to make an autonomous decision about her health during the gestational surrogacy period. Commissioner parents may feel the need to participate in this decision for the interest of their unborn child. Surrogates also hold the right to privacy of the pregnancy of their unborn child. They decide what extent of detail the commissioning parents should receive concerning their health and that of the unborn child. After the birth of the fetus, the surrogate still reserves the right to make medical decisions in the best interest of the newborn. These scenarios can lead to conflicts of interests between the commissioners and the surrogate.

After the child's birth, a controversy may arise on the true mother of the newly born. The commissioning mother may argue that the child bears her genetic imprints and thus reserves the right to take responsibility for its motherhood. The surrogate mother at the same time can claim responsibility of the baby. This is because she gained an attachment to the developing child while it was in her womb. She also felt the pain to deliver and bring the child into the world. Many theories exist to solve this dispute. Kandel suggests shared responsibility between the surrogate and the commissioning mother on the child. This may have adverse psychological outcomes on the child's growth. It might also be against the will of one of the mothers. State laws are not explicit on such matters that leaves a cause for conflict and dilemma (Sills, 2016).

Breastfeeding is also a big challenge during surrogacy. When the surrogate mother delivers, her body naturally gets prepared for lactation. Her breasts are fully engorged with milk. If she does not breastfeed the newborn child, her breast milk all goes to waste. For the cases where she breastfeeds the new child, she is required to go through a very inconveniencing schedule. They are needed to pump milk frequently even during odd hours of the night. Intended parents may induce milk production using hormones. This may not always work and may also be bound to hormonal imbalance. Commissioning parents may be forced to purchase additional milk for the baby, which is quite unordinary. It is of more convenience to breastfeed from the birth mother (Surrogate.com).

Surrogate mothers lose their motherhood autonomy. According to fundamental human rights, women who have carried a pregnancy and its associated woes for nine months are entitled to the motherhood of the child. Surrogates undergo many physiological and psychological distresses which cannot be paid by money. The best reward for what pregnant women go through would be enjoying their right to motherhood. Surrogates take extra steps to care for their health, undergo anxiety, hormonal imbalances, and permanent body changes. Implantation of an embryo in their uterus may not be a satisfying experience. A natural sexual intercourse way of conception would be more fulfilling to the surrogates. Even after withstanding all these situations, surrogates are denied the right to own the pregnancy they have so hardly worked for. Delivery of the surrogate baby may put the surrogate mother's life at a risk. Surrogacy laws do not offer proper compensatory procedures in the event this occurs (Kulkarni., 2015).

Exploitation and misunderstanding are also common issues surrounding surrogacy. In states like India where commercial surrogacy is legal, and the price of carrying the pregnancy is relatively low, fertility tourism is on the increase. Since scanty regulatory mechanisms exist for the surrogates, subjects end up being exploited and exposed to huge risks. Surrogate mothers do not undergo prior counseling before participating in surrogacy. Surrogate mothers are enclosed in restricted areas with the disguise of antenatal care. The real motive of confinement is to separate surrogates from the rest of their community to avoid stigma ( Saxena, Mishra & Malik, 2012).

Lack of transparency and misunderstanding presents another vital issue. Surrogates are sometimes dishonest and present the wrong child to the intended parents. After a DNA test, the

commissioning parents reject the newborn baby who ends up in an orphanage. Surrogates sometimes fail to honor their agreements with the commissioning parents. The two parties end up in lengthy legal battles in court where the intended parent spends a lot of time and resources trying to acquire their rightful child. Genetic parents also fail to compensate the gestational surrogates in situations where complications arise, or the results of the pregnancy turn out negative. Commissioning parents should cater for post-pregnancy needs which include insurance and psychiatric counseling. This, however, does not happen in most cases especially where surrogates come from developing countries ( Saxena et al., 2012)

Commercialization of pregnancy has been seen as unethical. Surrogacy advertisement creates a view of a natural process that is now being practiced for monetary gain. This is likened to prostitution or human trafficking. It places innocent women in countries without well-defined surrogacy guidelines at high risk. Many women may not mind surrogacy to make themselves an extra shilling. Unfortunately, they get into surrogacy deals without proper information and due diligence. The result is being exploited by wealthy commissioning parents for their selfish gains. Altruistic surrogacy should be the only one allowed and strict regulatory laws put in place to govern the surrogacy agreements (Brinsden, 2003).

According to Sills (2016), there are many children in children homes who do not have parents. Humans beings have the moral responsibility to care for these children since the children did not make the choices to be in the situations they are. Surrogacy fails to be in line with this ideology by increasing the number of children available, yet some children lack parents. Some parents fail to afford to raise their children and result in taking them to children's homes. Intended parents who seek surrogacy services would be morally to adopt a child or two from a children's shelter rather than 'manufacture' another one in already overpopulated earth. Commissioning parents can also support children in orphanages with any assistance instead of seeking surrogacy. This would benefit the world better and seen to be a morally correct endeavor.

Conclusion

sionIn conclusion, gestational surrogacy is a beneficial practice in terms of assisting people with reproductive problems in siring children. Nevertheless, a lot of ethical issues are associated with the method. Surrogacy, therefore, needs numerous debate on its appropriateness of implementation as well as clear laws governing its operation. International bodies may be formed which regulate the mechanisms of its enactment to prevent developing countries without strict surrogacy policies from exposing its citizens to the vulnerability of exploitation.

References

E. Scott Sills. (2016). H andbook of Gestational Surrogacy. International Clinical Practice and Policy Issues. Cambridge University Press.

Ragini Kulkarni. (2015).Ethical dilemmas in surrogacy. Hektoen International. Maharashta, India

American Surrogacy. (2018). Surrogacy. Retrieved from:https://surrogate.com/surrogates/ Accessed on: 13/2/2019

Dan R. Reilly. (2007). Surrogate pregnancy: a guide for Canadian prenatal health care providers..The Canadian Medical Association Journal. Canada

Peter R. Brinsden.(2003). Gestational surrogacy. Human Reproduction Update, Volume 9, Issue 5, 1 September , Pages 483-491

Saxena, P., Mishra, A., and Malik, S. (2012). Surrogacy: ethical and legal issues. Indian journal of community medicine : official publication of Indian Association of Preventive & Social Medicine, 37(4), 211-3.