The medical and legal background on Surrogacy

Webster's Medical Dictionary defines surrogate mother as "a woman who becomes pregnant, usually by artificial insemination or surgical implantation of a fertilized egg for the purpose of carrying the fetus to term for another woman." In either case, it is assumed that at the end of the pregnancy, the baby is surrendered to the couple that employed the services of the surrogate. The egg can be obtained from three different sources:

- It can be taken from the intended mother who is unable to carry pregnancy to term, but is able to produce healthy eggs

- It is provided by the surrogate mother

- It is provided by a third party donor

Just as with eggs, the sperm can either be obtained from the intended father or from the sperm bank. Thus, there are quite a few combinations as to who the parents can be, which creates a whole new set of problems that will be discussed later.

There are two main types of surrogacy: traditional and gestational. In traditional surrogacy, the surrogate mother is impregnated via artificial insemination, and carries a child that is genetically her off

Helena Ragone, Surrogate Motherhood: Conception in the Heart (Boulder: Westview Press, 1994)

Michelle Vadeboncoeur, Surrogate Motherhood, published in November of 1995, , accessed November 19, 2000

feeling that you get from visiting the site is that surrogacy was a very positive experience for everyone involved.

spring. In gestational surrogacy, the surrogate mother is implanted with a fertilized embryo, which was previously obtained by the intended parents through in vitro fertilization. Thus, she has no genetic link to the child she carries, and the child is not her offspring, in the conventional sense of the term.

One of the most interesting, and probably the least studied, group of people involved in the surrogacy agreements are the surrogate mothers themselves. What motivates these women to become a surrogate mother? Why would a woman want to put herself through nine months of what can be a difficult pregnancy, and labor or even have to face giving birth by way of C-Section? Do women do it just for the money?

Helena Ragone, Surrogate Motherhood: Conception in the Heart (Boulder: Westview Press, 1994)

In summary, I would like to point out that the majority of the surrogacy arrangements turn out to be positive experiences for all involved, and it is only the few that have gone awry, which have drawn a great deal of public attention. Nonetheless, even though they were only few, they raised some great ethical concern in connection with the whole concept of surrogate motherhood that cannot and should not be ignored.

According to Thomas A. Shannon, a psychiatrist who was working with a matching agency (an agency that brings together the potential surrogates, and the couples who want to employ their services) had found that the monetary compensation was not the main driving force for the surrogate mothers. More over, as their pregnancy progressed, the monetary compensation became less important, and became unimportant after the delivery. The potential candidates named following reasons as their motivations (money being one of them, but not most important):

Some common words found in the essay are:
Thomas Shannon, Helena Ragone, York York's, Medical Dictionary, Surrogate Motherhood, Westview Press, , surrogate motherhood, surrogate mother, Publishing Company, thomas shannon, legal mother, Olga Angelis, helena ragone, surrogacy arrangement, monetary compensation, mother woman, psychological evaluation, intended parents, Motherhood Conception, ragone surrogate motherhood, surrogate motherhood conception, helena ragone surrogate, motherhood conception heart, heart boulder westview,
Approximate Word count = 2837
Approximate Pages = 11 (250 words per page double spaced)