IS SURROGATE MOTHERING EXPLOITATIVE?

ABSTRACT

Surrogacy is the practice whereby a surrogate carries a child for another person most times by commission due to previous arrangement made by been parties that the child when birthed would be handed over to the parents of the child. Surrogate motherhood refers to a situation whereby a third party female elects or is commisioned to carry pregnancy on behalf of another couple. There are typically two forms of surrogacy and these two types are distinguishable depending on the existence or not of genetic link between the surrogate mother and the foetus, traditional surrogacy and gestational surrogacy. The traditional surrogacy is the practice where the surrogate mother contribute genetically to the conception of the baby by fertilization of her own eggs through In Vitro fertilization (IVF). Gestational surrogacy however which can also referred to as look surrogacy, takes place when the surrogate mother does not contribute genetically to to the conception of the body there the surrogate is strictly the carrier of the baby and nothing else. This implies that a prior fertilized egg is implanted into the uterus of the surrogate and the surrogate carries the pregnancy to full term. Exploitation in surrogacy can be either maturely beneficial or harmful to either parties, it has been argued that the entire concept of surrogacy doesn’t only make children like mere commodities, it is said to also be detrimental to the surrogate mother, be it mentally or health wise. It is also said to be the product of poverty and illiteracy being that in more than 50% of cases concerning surrogacy, the socioeconomic inequality between both parties is always pronounced and glaring.