Surrogacy

Surrogacy is the process of having a third party facilitate a birth by carrying the pregnancy for the intended parents. A surrogate mother is most commonly used when a couple cannot become pregnant on their own for myriad reasons, the most common being cancer, reproductive system disease, and homosexuality. Surrogacy first became possible by intrauterine insemination, the process of fertilizing a female’s egg by inserting the sperm directly into the female’s uterus and fallopian tube. With the emergence of in vitro fertilization (an embryo being implanted directly into a woman’s uterus), surrogacy became even more widely available to intended parents who were unable to carry a pregnancy. Surrogacy is one of the most expensive assisted reproduction technologies, ranging anywhere from a few thousand to more ...