Gestación subrogada: Debate ético, legal y social

Surrogacy

Good morning. I’ve been asked to talk about surrogacy. To start with, I want to underline that this is a highly discussed and controversial topic nowadays.

In the 21st century, technology has helped us broaden the traditional boundaries we typically put around the notion of a family. One of the latest trends in reproduction is surrogacy, where a couple (or a single person) who, for whatever reason, cannot have children, hires a woman who can carry their offspring.

Main Arguments Against Surrogacy

1. Exploitation

One of the most commonly used arguments against surrogacy is that it is exploitative: it takes advantage of poverty-stricken women and pays them far less than a surrogate would usually be paid in a developed country.

2. Psychological Impact on the Surrogate Mother

Moreover, referring to a surrogate mother, experts argue that there are certain unbreakable bonds that naturally develop between a mother and the unborn child she carries during pregnancy. Surrogate mothers will inevitably face great psychological trauma when forced to give up the baby.

3. Violation of Children’s Rights

In addition, surrogacy completely infringes the rights of a child. It is no secret that parents play the most significant role in a child’s development. Now, if we take a look at surrogacy, we can see that all these rights are being threatened. Cases when “customers” change their minds and decide not to have children, or refuse to accept a child because of physical or mental disability, are rather frequent. In this case, surrogate mothers give birth to children whom no one needs anymore; most likely, such children will end up in an orphanage. All this is an obvious violation of children’s rights.

The Case of Gammy

There was a related scandal involving an Australian couple who decided to “order” a child from a surrogate mother in Thailand. The genetic material would belong to the parents, so the woman would only have to give birth to the child. After nine months of pregnancy, this surrogate mother gave birth to twins: a completely healthy girl, and a boy with Down syndrome (he was later named Gammy).

Gammy’s genetic parents refused to bring him up and claimed they would rather have preferred an abortion to take place. In this case, Gammy is unwanted by all sides of the conflict: neither his biological mother nor his genetic parents are legally obliged to take care of him.

Open Questions

• Who can guarantee that this situation does not happen again, and again?
• Are there ways to legally regulate parental responsibilities when a child is unwanted by all contractors?

Conclusion

There are many moral and legal gaps in this question, so surrogacy is far from being accepted as a widespread solution for many couples.