Surrogacy

Surrogacy is a form of family making, in which a woman becomes pregnant for the purpose of delivering a baby to others who will be the child’s parents. Surrogacy is based upon a multiplicity of technologies: (a) medical technologies, such as donor insemination or in vitro fertilization (IVF), which enable the separation of gestation from conjugal relations; (b) legal contracts, which define the contractual rights and responsibilities of all parties taking part in the surrogacy process, and enable both the contracted pregnancy and subsequent child delivery; and (c) bureaucratic state-centered procedures, which determine the ensuing kinship status of parents and children, typically severing the parent–child relationship between the surrogate and the child and bestowing parenthood upon the commissioning parents.

This entry provides a brief overview of ...