Surrogacy

For many couples the only hope of them having a child is through surrogacy - that can be their dream which will need considerable care and consideration.

Surrogacy is when a woman carries and gives birth to a baby whom she then hands over to another women. Host surrogacy - the IVF procedure is used so the surrogate caries the child that is not genetically related to her. Full Surrogacy - the surrogate is inseminated with the man's semen from the commissioning couple. Illegal in many countries or not practiced. Surrogacy is complicated by different regulations about who is the mother. In the UK and some States in the USA the mother is defined as the woman who carries the child - therefore if she changes her mind she can keep the child. In other States of the USA the commissioning mother is defined as the mother with rights to the child.

Many issue will need to be considered before embarking on surrogacy -legal, emotional, ethical, social. The welfare of any children involved must be taken into account.

Surrogacy is considered by many people to be a minefield of human emotions. It is hard in such tortuous relationships to be able to predict the outcome and so most clinics would refer each case for specialist counselling and to an ethics committee for approval. The BMA (British Medical Association in their report (1990) suggested that:- "The aggregate of foreseeable hazards should not be so great as to place unacceptable burdens on any of the parties - including the child". Justice Latey in a judgment of 1986 summed up by saying: "One cannot sit in these courts and hear all the multitude of professionals and others without knowing well the depth of longing in couples, devoted to each other, who cannot have a child through no fault of their own. But before they go down the pat (of surrogacy) they should know, and know fully, what it may entail. It is no primrose path" The indications for surrogacy are rare, it is a last resort. Perhaps they have suffered from repeated miscarriages or ectopic pregnancies, perhaps they were born without a uterus, or it was removed as a result of severe haemorrhage in a previous childbirth (often resulting in the loss of the child as well), or they have had a hysterectomy as a result of cancer, or perhaps they suffer from some other medical complication which make them considering a pregnancy dangerous, but which would not prevent them from being a good parent, or perhaps they have failed repeatedly at IVF. But very difficult questions will need to be faced, and faced honestly - and not the least the effect of future success or failure on anybody concerned in surrogacy. Failure is difficult for the commissioning couple, but it is also a disaster for the surrogate - for her family. They will all need to consider the attitudes of friends and their colleagues and to understand how the change in parentage or adoption procedures can enable the child to have the parents and the name that it needs. In so many areas of our lives we can never predict what lies ahead but we can prepare ourselves and we can, and should, have access to proper and effective counselling.

Surrogacy has been used to help a gay couples to have twin children.