Blog # 6

View any of the video clips posted in the Supplemental Readings area and reflect on these clips in your blog.

I viewed the video clip, " Why do surrogate mothers do what they do?". Overall I found this clip to be very touching and I admire the surrogate mother for being so selfless and helping an infertile couple she barely knew to have 2 babies. As well as other couples since she had been a surrogate several times.

I would first like to provide the definitions for the two common types of surrogacy; Traditional surrogacy is when the surrogate is pregnant with her own biological child, but this child was conceived with the intention of relinquishing the child to be raised by others such as the biological father and possibly his spouse or partner, either male or female.
Gestational surrogacy is when the surrogate becomes pregnant via embryo transfer with a child of which she is not the biological mother.(1)

As surrogacy has become more and more common the controversy surrounding this issue has grown amongst members of different religious and political groups. It is very easy for people that have never experienced the inability to have children to form opinions on this issue. I find this to be a very gray area, one in which a person's opinion may change if they were to find out they were unable to have a child themselves.

If proper health and psychological screenings are completed on a surrogate and a couple wishes to participate in a gestational surrogacy, I find no reason they should not be allowed to. There are so many couples out there that would make wonderful parents but wait until they are educated and financially ready to have children that later find out, they are unable to because of age, infertility, etc. Surrogacy provides these people with hope to have a family of their own and provides an option along with adoption to make a decision in how they want to go about having a family.

Traditional surrogacy is a little more controversial because the child is often that of the surrogate carrying it. Although sometimes it is that of persons (through egg/sperm donations) other than the couple that will be caring for the baby after birth. This has raised many questions like, "why would this surrogate give up a child of her own, that she has created and carried for 9 months to people she barely knows?" Isn't that what people who chose to give their babies up for adoptions also do? Is it possible for a women to emotionally detach herself from the child she is carrying, knowing it is being born to be the child of someone else?? I am not sure of the answers to any of these questions, I have never used a surrogate, I have never been a surrogate, I have never adopted a child or given a child up for adoption. My opinion is that people react to situations when they are put into them and if all parties involved are on board and have agreed to such an arrangement, then it is OK.

Many people think you can not love a child that is not your blood as much. I disagree with this, look at step parents who have adopted children of their spouse and love them no different than their own. Look at parents who have adopted children from foreign countries that make them a part of their family and love them just the same. It really is no different than surrogacy and with surrogacy the parents are often a part of the conception, pregnancy and birth process from the start, which leads me to believe an even stronger love and bond is formed.

Reference:
(1) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Surrogate_pregnancy retrieved October 10, 2009