Some women are simply not able to give birth to a child for some reasons. Even after taking some medicines to become fertile, nothing happens. In previous years, such a situation would indicate that the only way for a couple to have children is adoption. Modern couples have one more option, which is surrogate motherhood. Egg and sperm taken from the couple are implanted into the body of a surrogate mother. Afterwards the surrogate mother gives the born child to the couple. However, this is associated with both pros and cons. The most widely known drawbacks and benefits of surrogate motherhood will be discussed as follows.
Among the beneficial sides of surrogate motherhood is the fact that this procedure allows a couple to become biological parents of their child. Even if a woman cannot become pregnant and give birth to a child due to some health problems, there is still an option of hiring a surrogate mother who would become pregnant with the help of the donated egg and sperm from the couple. This is considered a much better option than adoption, because in this case the couple will be biological parents of their child even though the spouse will not give birth to it. What is more, surrogate motherhood appears to be cheaper than treatment of fertility that one of the spouses might want to undergo in order to have children. In fact, surrogate mothers are paid a salary for all their efforts, but the overall expenses are significantly less than extensive treatment that a woman would undergo. Besides, fertility treatment might not help in any way, so that a couple will spend efforts in vain. But the success rate of surrogate motherhood appears to be much higher. In 25% of cases, a surrogate mother becomes pregnant owing the donated material from the spouses. Few of the fertility treatments achieve such a success, which means that surrogate motherhood is a more efficient way of realizing a dream to have a baby.
However, there are also several drawbacks of surrogate motherhood as will be analyzed further. First, surrogate mothers happen to have rights for the child they give birth to. In many laws, it is not stated that by using the services of a surrogate mother, the spouses become parents of the born child. And the surrogate mother might not at all follow the agreement signed by the parties involved in this procedure. Second, it is a significant stress for a surrogate mother to give away the child she has given birth to. A surrogate mother might suffer from emotional distress as it is hard to give a child to its rightful parents after a woman has undergone so much pain and sufferings during pregnancy. This is a great psychological stress for a surrogate mother, which is a significant drawback of surrogacy.
Furthermore, the surrogate mother might not necessarily follow the instructions concerning health. Surrogate mothers are not observed all the time. She might smoke a cigarette once in a while or drink alcohol, and nobody will know, but there is likelihood that a child will be born with disabilities. Besides, there are laws according to which surrogate motherhood is an illegal procedure, so that the spouses who choose such a method can be fined or even imprisoned. They might also lose a newborn baby to the surrogate mother. There is also likelihood that all mentioned consequences will happen at a time. In such a way, the procedure of surrogate motherhood might cost too much, but most couples are so desperate that they continue to choose this practice, and such a situation results in hundreds of babies being born by means of surrogate motherhood every year.