The Need for Surrogacy - Research Paper Example

?Running Head: Health Sciences and medicine Surrogacy Insert Insert Grade Insert 29 April The need for surrogacy arisesdue to the societal practices and gender expectations. A woman who cannot give birth suffers from psychological and social problems as there is a general bias of infertility towards women. Failure to have children in many cultures leads to societal stigmatization and is a leading cause of divorce in some marriages. Failure to get pregnant and have children lead women to seek medical assistance, which include assisted reproductive technologies even when it is their male counterparts who have the infertility problems. With medically proven infertility, the desire to have biological children remains farfetched and surrogacy provides an avenue where childless couples can have children biologically related to them. In some instances surrogacy becomes an option where one partner in marriage has a genetic defect that the parents want to avoid passing on to their offspring. The joy of bearing children and rearing them provides parents with a wonderful experience of love and happiness .Surrogacy makes this possible for marriages not blessed with children through consensual arrangements, surrogate mothers give infertile woman a chance to enjoy motherhood and fulfill the societal expectations and gendering roles, it removes the social stigma, and mental anguish experienced by childless couples. The advancement of reproductive technology has made it possible for surrogate motherhood where consensual arrangements are made to facilitate women giving birth to children for other women. The biological mother intentionally gives up the baby, parental rights, and the physical custody of the child to the other woman immediately after birth. These arrangements are made and governed by contracts that stipulate the rights and responsibilities of the surrogate mothers and the commissioning parents, who initiate the arrangement with the signing of a contract enforcing the agreement. These legalize the surrogate mother giving up the child and the other couple taking up the child after birth. Surrogacy is vigorously opposed by many religious groups who believe surrogacy will destroy the sacred institutions of the family (Karen, 2012). Many religious organizations and societal cultures believe that procreation should be left to married persons and no other parties should be involved in the sacred process of procreation. Surrogacy has many different ethical and legal issues, which are complex and difficult to analyze and conclude. These issues challenge the traditional precincts of motherhood and parental rights. Children borne of surrogacy have two mothers; the genetic mother and the social mother, which raises social and legal complications. De-linking the child, motherhood, and parenting creates a big dilemma as the motives for child bearing changes. In surrogate arrangements, the fetal maternal bonding established between a baby and the mother during pregnancy is broken when the baby is physically transferred to the commissioning parents. This bonding is facilitated by oxytocin an important hormone that controls and regulates the maternal instincts of the mother. Oxytocin release is stimulated in the mother by contact with the baby and breastfeeding (Kennell & McGrath, 2002). The baby and the biological mother are linked physically and emotionally. The baby’s behavior is inherently conditioned to learn social behaviors from the people it interacts with as it has excellently developed psychological and cognitive facilities to learn from the biological mother and other people (Hobson, 2002).The breaking of this special relationship leads to adverse emotional problems in surrogate mothers who after carrying the baby to term become emotionally attached to their babies and it is the common cause of surrogate legal disputes in most parts of the world. The majority of surrogate mothers live with emotional trauma of abandoning their biological children for many years (Ciccarelli & Beckman, 2005). This clearly indicates that the women made errors of judgment in entering the surrogate contractual arrangements. They are not prepared to cope with their naturally inherent maternal instincts of nursing and nurturing their offspring to adulthood, which is ethically and morally wrong. Parenthood cannot be relinquished by an agreement or contract as the natural maternal bond developed between mother and child during gestation is unbreakable. These women must make conscious decisions to de-link themselves from their babies after birth. They are psychologically assisted and supported by therapy to deal with the psychological dilemmas and emotional problems that naturally come when separating with their babies. These strategies are deceptive and dehumanizing as the baby is treated as an object that does not merit any consideration and the mother as a mere vehicle devoid of any feelings for her offspring (Hanna, 2010). When programs designed to psychologically numb the surrogate mothers to give up their children crumbles, most often due to surrogacy agencies going bankrupt, the surrogate mother experience intense separation anxiety due to feelings of loss, pain and helplessness when separating with their children (Ber, 2000). It is ethically and morally wrong for a biological mother to suffer because of losing her own child to another woman because of an agreement and having no role to play in the life of this baby. Even though the commissioning parents also suffer from their inability to bear children, it is not right sacrificing one party’s happiness over the other as this would indicate that all persons are not equal under natural law and under the legal systems of our countries. These arrangements depersonalize the children because they do not hold any bargaining power and they are treated as inanimate objects incapable of feelings and emotions (Hanna, 2010). This also means that the parent owns the child and thus can do whatever she wants with the child. Therefore, surrogacy is ethically wrong because it dehumanizes the babies in one way or the other. Under normal circumstances the legal system and all the parties concerned decide on what is good for the children but it does not guarantee that the conditions present during the decision will always prevail. Surrogacy is slowly being commercialized with surrogacy firms making huge profits. There has been a steady rise in reproductive tourism especially in India where there is large number of women willing to act as surrogates for commercial gain. The profits from Indian commercial surrogacy will ensure the trade goes on unabated with little regard to the motivations on the commissioning parents and the surrogates undermining the primary goal of contractual pregnancies. The Indian surrogacy market is very desirable because of the low costs and the practice is culturally accepted. The women are religiously and culturally forbidden from using drugs eliminating the possibility of injury to the children during gestation (Parks, 2010). Unregulated surrogacy legislation is unethical as the business is commercialized leading to wombs for rent and a practice inclined to child selling. The increasing global trade in reproductive services risks dehumanizing woman and children rights and dignity for commercial purposes and should be controlled on ethical and moral considerations (Gupta, 2012). Children should be born out of relationships built on trust and love. Reproductive tourisms make it easy to buy reproductive services, which are unethical and contravene social and moral laws. The commissioning parents take advantage of their strong social economic status and lax social and legal laws over Indian surrogate mothers who opt to rent their bodies for economic gain. The fact that the aspiring social parents travel from their countries where surrogacy arrangements are more expensive and have stricter legal requirements makes their motives suspect. This relationship is exploitative and it is ethically wrong in the face of the economic inequalities of the commissioning parents. In the face of equal economic empowerment, these high number of women willing to offer their wombs for sale would not agree to these contractual relationships. Surrogate arrangements are governed by contracts; they require the surrogate mothers to avoid anything that can harm the baby. In the event that something happens that harms the baby, the commissioning parents may back out of the contract, and the surrogate mother may be compelled to return the financial remuneration she had received. Carrying a baby to term is a risk that mothers take, they do so with love and care for their young ones, and if the pregnancy is eventful and results in the death or injury of the baby they are not socially held responsible. In undergoing surrogacy the woman undergoes intrusive and painful procedures and the treatment can lead to health complications, which include ectopic pregnancies and miscarriages. Gestational pregnancy has increased health risks to the mother, which can lead to death and this leads to social reservation about assisted reproductive technologies in the general population especially in women (Suzuki et al, 2011). The child rights and welfare is always at risk in the event the baby is born and the commissioning parents no longer want the child. This leaves the child parentless, which is unethical and brings fore the issues of parenthood. Surrogacy has the possibility of increasing eugenic tendencies in the society where the commissioning parents would want a specific type of child. In the case the child has a genetic or physical disability the commissioning parents may refuse to honor the contract or request for the abortion of the fetuses, which is ethically wrong. Exceptionally talented and intelligent children would give them undue advantage over other children considering that they already come from a wealthy background able to afford surrogate motherhood. This changes the motives of parenthood and motherhood and it is ethically wrong on the basis that every child has a right to be and one should not choose one child over the other based on qualities. The contractual surrogate arrangements always favor the commissioning parents and they are reinforced by most legal systems. They have the possibility of infringing on the surrogates privacy, morality, and ethics that raises disputes in case the woman refuse to comply. Surrogacy is banned in most parts of the world especially the developing worlds as it is against the societal norms. Most of the legal laws are not harmonized internationally leading to commercial surrogacy and reproductive tourism. There are increasingly large cases of babies being declared stateless and parentless in the event of foreign surrogacy and when some of the parties back out of their contracts. Many others are raising children not knowing that they do not have legal authority to do so. Many of these contracts are unfair to the birth mothers; immediately after birth the commissioning couples take off with the child without the formation of any relationship between the mothers the child and the family the new born will be raised. Absence of harmonized surrogacy laws means that the existing laws have the potential to affect some of the parties in surrogate arrangements and ultimately the child the laws are supposed to protect. These laws are biased towards the birth mothers who regularly come from poor backgrounds and hence are already disadvantaged by the legal systems, which are very costly. Considering that the greatest motivation for accepting surrogacy is to facilitate the joy of parenthood to the infertile woman, it is ethically wrong to prevent the birth mother any access to her child. The permissibility of non traditional families having children from assisted reproductive family raises social issues about the impacts these families have on the emotional and social development of the children. This goes against the traditional social norms of parentage arising from heterosexual unions. This raises ethical issues with the church especially when the legal systems accept the partners in same sex marriages as legal guardians of the children (Vaughn, 2011). All patients seeking assisted reproductive technologies have a legal right of confidentiality and information about the clients. Donations should not be given to anyone without the patients consent. The patients should be supplied with the full information about the assisted reproductive treatments, their limitations and expected results and availability of alternative treatments. They should be advised on the legal rights of children and all parties born under this technology. The law strictly prohibits the use of gametes and embryo from patients without their explicit written consent and all patients must willingly sign their consent to avoid legal hiccups afterwards. If unchecked by the legal and social laws, surrogacy is slowly changing the motives of having children. Unregulated surrogacy can devalue the reproductive status of women from poor backgrounds and the rights of children. It also fails to uphold the dignity and the supreme welfare of the child as it elevates the right of the commissioning parents over the birth mother and child. By breaking the maternal relationship established during gestation, it has the possibility of hindering the proper psychological development of the child. Surrogacy does not consider implications it has on the human relationships and the children. The current situation allows commercialization and exploitation of weaker persons in the reproductive area. The existing surrogate laws must be strengthened and strictly implemented to avoid the erosion of noble motives of surrogacy. References Ber, R. (2000). Ethical Issues in Gestational Surrogacy. Theoretical Medicine and Bioethics, 21:153-169. Ciccarelli & Beckman (2005). Navigating Rough Waters: An Overview of Psychological Aspects of Surrogacy. Journal of Social Issues, 61(1): 21-43. Gupta, J. (2012). Parenthood in the era of Reproductive Outsourcing and Global Assemblages. Asian Journal of Women's Studies, 18(1), 7-29,128. Hanna, K. M. (2010). Revisiting Child-Based Objections to Commercial Surrogacy. Bioethics, 24(7), 341-347. Hobson, R. P. (2002). The Cradle of Thought: Exploring the Origins of Thinking. London: Macmillan. Karen, F. (2012). What Are the Social and Ethical Issues Related to Surrogate Motherhood? Retrieved from http://ezinearticles.com/?What-Are-the-Social-and-Ethical-Issues-Related-to-Surrogate-Motherhood?&id=2683490 Kennell &McGrath (2002). Starting The Process Of Mother-Infant Bonding. Acta Paediatrica. 94(6):775-7 Parks, J. A. (2010). Care Ethics and the Global Practice of Commercial Surrogacy. Bioethics, 24(7), 333-340. Suzuki, K., Sawa, R., Muto, K., Kusuda, S., Banno, K., & Yamagata, Z.. (2011). Risk Perception of Pregnancy Promotes Disapproval of Gestational Surrogacy: Analysis of a Nationally Representative Opinion Survey in Japan. International Journal of Fertility & Sterility, 5(2), 78-85. Vaughn, R. (2011). Advising "Non-Traditional" Families in Multi-Jurisdictional Surrogacy Arrangements. American Journal of Family Law, 25(3), 105-113. Read More