Ethical Arguments on Surrogacy

honest Arguments on SurrogacyLeticia VillalbaSurrogacy A Great Option to InfertilityIn promptlyadayss society, women that be unable to become pregnant natur all toldy collectable to infertility atomic number 18 resorting to surrogacy to start out their fryren. With surrogacy being a complex serve, it involves many different deterrent example, estimable, and levelheaded issues that argon challenging the acceptance of this attendant generative preaching by society. However, surrogacy should only be viewed by society as a great option to infertility based on hygienic moral, ethical, and legal arguments. In effect, this view forget help eliminate guidanceward criticism against the ones resorting to this reproductive alternative to create a family and also against the nestling later in life. Legislators should pass laws to help and protect the rights of adoptive obtains, mean parents and children.In order to fully understand the ethical, moral, and legal arguments surrounding surrogacy it is primal to understand what surrogacy is. According to the Online Merriam-Webster dictionary, the definition of surrogacy is the class period of serving as a transposition mother (Surrogacy) and to substitute means to put in the bottom of some other (Surrogate). These two definitions put together allow surrogacy to be cave in defined as a act upon whereby a woman bears and gives consanguinity to a child that she will not raise but will give to the intend uninspired couple.There are two types of surrogacy, tralatitious and gestational. In both types of surrogacy, the surrogate mother can either be a close friend, a family member, or from a surrogacy agency and the assisted reproductive technology (ART) method is used to assist with the surrogacy processes.With the handed-d aver surrogacy process, the surrogate mother becomes pregnant by being unreally inseminated with the sperm of the intended father. As the sperm is inserted into her uterus, v ia a simple medical procedure, when her mature eggs is released by the ovary she can conceive and later give birth to a child (ACOG Committee on ethical motive). Traditional surrogacy was the only process in stock(predicate) due to technological limitations when surrogacy was first introduced. But as technology has advance(a) in the reproductive field allowing fertilization to happen outside the womb, infertile couples are choosing gestational surrogacy over traditional. Legal issues are greater with traditional surrogacy as the surrogate mother and the botch up has a genetic link. commemorate Hansen, a senior writer for the journal at the American draw a blank Association (a professional organization composed of lawyers and law students committed to support the legal profession while improving the administration of justice) adds that many lawyers quiver when thy crap to work with traditional surrogacy and some wont evening dish out such an arrangement (Hansen 56). Hansen is simply reiterating the fact that legal problems are more prone to happen with traditional surrogacy due to the biological friendship the baby has with the surrogate mother.Gestational surrogacy (also referred to as commercial surrogacy) is a process in which the intended parents undergo an in-vitro fertilization and an embryo transfer treatment (Ethics Committee of the American Society for fruitful Medicine 1838). The intended mother is prescribed medication to start development of multiple egg follicles. formerly these follicles reach maturity, mature eggs are retrieved from the intended mothers ovaries procedurally to be later fertilized with the intended fathers sperm. When fertilization in-vitro (in an artificial environment) occurs, the embryo is then transferred to the gestational surrogates uterus (Ziskin). The gestational surrogate (also known as gestational carrier) will then convey the couples biological child until birth. This is a much more complex and pricy proc ess, but it is mostly preferred by prospective parents due to the omit of genetic bond between baby and surrogate and the increased legal benefits.Provided this information, substantial issues for and against these surrogacy procedures have arisen. Many religious institutions, feminists, ethicists, and traditionalists oppose surrogacy on moral and ethical grounds. They justify this by stating that surrogacy is just another way to do business and profit off of women and infants becoming commodities to be bought and sold, a way of commercializing humans. But in the article Consideration of The Gestational Carrier A Committee Opinion the ethics charge of the American Society for Reproductive Medicine (ASRM) argues thatPayment to the gestational carriers should take into account 9 months of attainable illness, risks to employment, burden on other family members, and the like, but should not, however, create undue incentive or risks of exploitation or incentivize gestational carriers to lie about their own health conditions or family history. Therefore compensation for gestational carriers is ethical (Ethics Committee of the American Society for Reproductive Medicine 1839).The ASRMs ethics committee is accentuate in their argument that commoditization of humans doesnt happen as payments do to the gestational carriers are a mere compensation for all the adversity they might encounter during the process.Beside the opponents beliefs, infertile women, infertile couples, and liberalists who represent the majority of advocates for surrogate motherhood assert that surrogacy is a way to help childless couples have their biologically cerebrated children even though they would have to pay luxuriously costs for this fertility treatment. They feel that the payment required does not relate to the childs worthiness but relates to the medical expenses incurred, as soundly as the emotional and physical burdens the surrogate mother experiences throughout the pregnancy.Mor eover, some feminists compare surrogacy with prostitution, alleging that women are selling their bodies and their ability to procreate for money. However, Judith Sperling-Newton, the director of the American Academy of support Reproductive Technology Attorneys argues that the vast majority of women who have to serve as surrogates are intelligent, closely-educated and financially secure they are caring individuals who want to help others in a unique and pregnant way (Sperling-Newton). Respectively, women that agree to carry someone elses baby are able to give to the childless couple the greatest gift of all, a child.Furthermore, the committee on ethics at the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists emphasize that in the United States, the freedom to decide whether and when to conceive or bear a child is highly valued and protected (ACOG Committee on Ethics 466). Therefore, the choice made by the intended parents on how they can have a child should be respected, as wel ls as the finish of the surrogate mothers to help barren couples.In addition to the moral and ethical issues there are also some legal issues. Helene S. Shapo, a prof of Law and the director of Legal Writing at the Northwestern University discipline of Law, writes that the lack of national polity in the United States to regulate the practice of surrogacy has helped several states recognize surrogacy contracts, although current state legislations nullify them (Shapo 474). These contracts between the surrogate mothers and the intended parents are only for the purpose of establishing parental rights, payment terms, and precise conditions since they still are not enforceable by law.Rosemarie Tong, a lordly professor of Health Care Ethics at the University of Carolina as well as a consultant to the National Advisory Board on Ethics and Reproduction, says that the U.S. public will press federal and state political science to pass clear legislation governing surrogacy (Tong), to make sure the rights of couples, surrogates and the child are not abused or manipulated.As a reckon of fact, advocates to surrogacy and opponents both agree that laws should be created in regards to surrogacy. However, some opponents want legislation to ban the existence of surrogacy altogether. They believe that human commoditization in the U.S. will be drastically reduced if surrogacy is banned (Tong). But Sudesh Kumar, an economist, a regulatory personal matters consultant, and the author of Surrogacy Can Be an good Solution to Infertility, argues thatIn economics, a trade good is a unit that can substitute for another at all points, so each unit has no special(a) intrinsic value. Thus, one cannot argue that the baby has become a commodity in surrogacy, as the baby is unique (Kumar).What Sudesh says simply explains that as the baby is the end product of the surrogacy process, that surrogacy should not viewed as human commoditization. Consequently, society should consider Sudeshs analysis as it would help eliminate criticism against all the parties involved in this process. Not only the adults can suffer psychologically but also the child later in life if they jadet have any social support.In summary, traditional and gestational surrogacy are assisted reproductive treatments that can help infertile couples fulfill their ultimate dream, which is to have children. But along the way, these couples may find themselves in big predicaments due to the complexity of moral, ethical, and legal dilemmas that were raised. These different aspects are now dividing society, however the pros can considerable overcome the cons of surrogacy. Like s fear by Mark Hansen, the author of Baby Makes Litigation, Surrogacy can be a minefield. But done carefully and correctly, it is a wonderful thing (qtd. In Hansen 55). Therefore, surrogacy is a great option to infertility. It helps barren couples experience the joys of parenthood regardless of the surrogacy process chosen. Legisl ators, advocates and opponents of surrogacy, must work together towards a greater compromise to aid the creation of legislations and thus minimize hardships to all parties involved.Works CitedACOG Committee on Ethics. Surrogate Motherhood. ACOG Committe Opinion Number 397 (2008) 465-70. Web. 4 January 2014.Ethics Committee of the American Society for Reproductive Medicine. Consideration of the gestational carrier a committee opinion. Fertility and Sterility June 2013 1838-41. Print.Hansen, Mark. and Baby makes Litigation. ABA Journal (2011) 53-57. Print.Kumar, Sudesh. Surrogacy Can Be an Ethical Solution to Infertility. 13 may 2013. Oposing Viewpoints in Context. Ed. Medical Ethics. Grenhaven Press. Web. 6 January 2014.Shapo, Helene S. Assisted Reproduction and the Law Disharmony on a Divisive kind Issue. Northwestern University Law Review (2006) 465-79. Print.Sperling-Newton, Judith. Surrogacy Should Be Regulated, Not Banned. 29 May 2013. Web. 6 January 2014.Surrogacy. Merriam-We bster.com (n.d.). Web. 6 January 2014.Surrogate. Merriam-Webster.com (n.d.). Web. 6 January 2014.Tong, Rosemarie. Surrogate Parenting. Ed. Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy. n.d. Web. 6 January 2014.Ziskin, Dan. Arizona Center For Fertility Studies. n.d. Web. 6 January 2014.