One of the earliest moments of successful and legal surrogacy happened in the 1980’s and first accepted widely during the 1970’s, the child who was produced from surrogacy was named Baby M (The History of Surrogacy). Some requirements for surrogate mothers include having to have given birth to and be raising that child, has a healthy lifestyle, be financially stable, be responsible, be a non-smoker, BMI under 32, no history of mental illness, ages between 21-38, must agree to psychological and drug screenings, IUDs will have to be removed, and tubal ligation is okay (What Are Surrogate Mother Requirements? – Learn More Today!). As of now there are currently only two types of surrogacy, traditional and gestational. With the traditional method it is only used when the biological mother’s egg and/or the biological father’s sperm are unable to be used. On the other hand, with gestational the surrogate will not be the biological parent and rather is the host for the biological mother’s egg (What Are Surrogate Mother Requirements? – Learn More Today!). Most of the time surrogacy helps those who go through problems of infertility and for those who cannot themselves have children, such as same sex couples. Surrogacy has always been a widely accepted practice for child birth and for this essay I will talk about many aspects of surrogacy including the basics, current vs. old practice, specifics on the many types, statistics, and the some famous people who have practiced this method for childbirth.
Getting to the basics for surrogacy, to be a certified surrogate does require a lot and to hire a surrogate, or be one, would have an estimated cost of anywhere between $95,000
-$150,000. With the most common types of surrogacy the primary being gestational and traditional, the wait time for a surrogate mother could be up to two or more weeks (Program, Surrogate Mother.). The procedure of surrogacy itself is one that differs between the types of surrogacy that fall under it however, for this instance, we will stay only on traditional and gestational. For the traditional procedure, the doctors inject the male sperm into the surrogates egg through artificial insemination, the egg is then placed back into the surrogate to be carried for nine months. With this method, it helps for those who are same sex couples as they themselves cannot birth a child, yet the child will still be biologically related to the surrogate mother. On the other hand with the gestational method, it is more often used for couples who cannot have a baby due to infertility. The way it is performed is nearly the same with artificial insemination, but they use the spouses egg and sperm so the baby is carried by another woman yet is biologically related to the couple (The History of Surrogacy.) Furthermore the beginning of surrogacy did not begin with motherhood but fatherhood, as in Hindu societies it was common to go to a “Niyog Pratha, wherein a woman who was childless because her husband was impotent was allowed to conceive through her brother-in-law.” In the Bible it talks about how a surrogate mother gave birth to the son of Abraham, yet true surrogate motherhood didn’t begin to be widely accepted until the 1800s as the American Indians had practiced. What happened is the male Indian would go to the chief of the tribe to get help with his wife's infertility, which then a witch doctor would do anything he can to fix the infertility. If the witch doctor failed, the man would go back to the chief in which the chief would allow the man to impregnate a woman and birth a son to carry on his tribe, the wife would have no biological ties to the child (Surrogate Motherhood: History and Concept.
As of now the differences with old time surrogacy, modern time surrogacy now gives the chance for the couple to be biologically related completely in certain cases. Yet the first problems that were encountered with surrogacy motherhood in 1980s was a women who after giving birth to the child did not want to give up the child. This proposed a giant problem as the women became a huge anit-surrogate as she stated it hurt her emotionally, family wise, and her husband’s career. This is why it is proposed that when becoming a surrogate women, to be not only prepared physically but to also be prepared mentally and emotionally as this child you would need to give up, no matter how strong a connection you’ve made with the child (The History of Surrogacy.).
Furthermore to dive deep into the different types of surrogacy we would need to cover man things including, but not limited to, procedure, payment, domesticity, work type, and in a certain LGBT cases. First by covering procedures, we look at if a family would rather perform a traditional or gestational method. With this comes the question, “Do I want to be biologically related to my child?”, the reason it is such a big question is what really separates between performing traditional surrogacy, as most likely the husband/wife will not be related to their child. This also provides other difficulties in the procedure, such as leading to more emotional stress for the surrogate, as they would need to essentially give up their child to the other family. The traditional method itself is always used as a last resort as gestational will be the most successful and used 99% of the time (The History of Surrogacy.). Second, when we look at the payment for such a surrogate it is listed under two categories; compensated(commercial) and altruistic. For the first type being compensated, what will generally happen is the surrogate will be paid for carrying the child, this method is usually complicated and controversial as it could lead to many problems for the family which hired the surrogate. The more widely used and beneficial surrogacy would be altruistic, as the family would only be paying for medical expenses and nothing else for the surrogate herself. The altruistic method is most preferred as the couple would most likely go to a very trusted friend or family member to deliver their child (Surrogate.com). When it comes to having your child with a surrogate, sometimes living close to home or in a safe environment would be the best option, but sometimes having to have your child born in another country would be a must. Next, with some couples who wish to have their child born internationally, having to look at the certain surrogacy laws, practices, and being so far away from your child could lead to a multitude of problems for you and the surrogate. With international surrogacy, you must do extensive research into the area you wish to birth your baby as many places do not practice such a controversial technique as much as other places might. But the better and beneficial practice would have to be domestic surrogacy, as domestic surrogacy wouldn’t be a hassle as you would be close and worry free of your surrogate and child. For living in the United States, surrogacy is very common, protected, and understood by many professionals and lawyers who wish to help (Surrogate.com). Next, when deciding what kind of surrogate you wish to hire, at most times you will most likely come across an agency who already has services to help find the perfect match to help with growing your family, at other times you might come across an independent surrogate who wishes to also help your family grow. The differences with this all comes down to what a couple decides, and if you wish to become a surrogate what you will decide. With an agency, there are many beneficial services which are here to help the surrogate during her pregnancy and the family with finding the best surrogate and making sure they get successful results. Compared to an agency, an independent or private surrogate will not have some of the benefits that an agency can provide and most likely a private surrogate will be a family member or close friend who does not wish to have a full career as a surrogate. But, being a private surrogate can be beneficial in terms of financial standings, as being private would help get more money as you would not be paying any agency fees (Surrogate.com). Lastly, for LGBT surrogacy, it is mostly the same process except for some key factors that might lead to arguments and even to legal battles. To start the LGBT couple would need for themselves to decide who will be the biological parent of the child and in some cases, by choosing a close donor in the family can help build a biological link for the child to both parents. Another big thing for LGBT surrogacy would have to be the legality for the child to be put under both parents names. In some states it could be very tiresome to try and get the legal system to name the couple as both parents for the child and the process can be denied or accepted without anyone knowing.
Moreover, surrogacy around the world isn’t too different from surrogacy in the United States except for some exceptions such as certain things being allowed and others banned or illegal, such as commercial surrogacy being illegal in New Zealand and Australia. Nonetheless anywhere in the world surrogacy will be the same in procedure, pricing, agencies to go to, and help from all over to help someone deliver your baby (Temblador). For some celebrities in the world, surrogacy is also a resort they are willing to try, such as Tyra Banks who had her first child using the surrogacy process. As her boyfriend, Erik Asla, and her used the method of gestational surrogacy, they will both be related to the baby and even more so, she is willing to use the process again to have her next child and even praises those who do this for a living (Dawn). Depending on the certain clinic you look over, the success rates may differ from agency to private to clinical as everyone has their own success rates. When looking for a surrogate, you’d want to make sure that the success rates is always beneficial more than not, such as the rate of “successful birth” being 95% once the surrogate is pregnant. But there certain cases such as an agency that makes sure the procedure is done at a 100% efficiency rate by hiring donors whose sperm/eggs are very healthy (Surrogacy Success Rates.).
Furthermore when looking into these agencies, clinics, or private surrogates it’s always good to know what contracts you’d be signing into to get the most out of the procedure. For the contract it is very important to get an understanding for both you and your surrogate as their daily life could be extremely important. For the first part of the contract, the discussion of how many embryos and attempts will you make in order to have a successful surrogacy, this is usually referred to as “The Transfer”. For the “Diet” part of the contract, this is where you can set any limitations on your surrogate in cases of food, drinks, snacks, etc. The next two sections have to do with the surrogate “Travel” and “Birth Plan”, as you can set certain limits on when the surrogate can go on vacation and limit them to only X amount of miles from where you live. As for the “Birth Plan”, it is here where you can make your decision on how you want your baby delivered such as: normal, water, home, c-section, etc. It also pertains to who is allowed to watch the delivery and who you would prefer to deliver the baby. The last parts of the contract include “Post-delivery”, “Maternity Leave”, and “Fees and Other costs” which are all part of and discussed when making your contract final (Froelker).
In conclusion, I have covered the basics, old vs. current, specifics on many types, and statistics/contracts, I hope it has brought a new insight to what surrogacy is and how much of a process it can be for those looking into surrogacy. With surrogacy being a nearly age-old practice, we have seen its evolution through the centuries from traditional to gestational and even to SPAR surrogacy to help those who are HIV-positive. With such advances in surrogacy to help even the most unlikely of people to have a child and with the advanced in technology we can even see movements into artificial wombs to carry children (Full Service). Even to see some celebrities such as previously mentioned Tyra Banks use a process of surrogacy can help motivate and even expand such a practice through people everywhere, even Kim Kardashian is using surrogacy to have their child. Even if in doubt, always trust the statistics as nearly 95% of all surrogate births are successes and with an agency that chance would nearly shoot straight up to 100%. This has worked for many centuries and has seen many an evolution, so who knows what's next for surrogacy in these coming years.