Surrogate motherhood Essays

Surrogate motherhood Essays Surrogate motherhood Essay Surrogate motherhood Essay Surrogate motherhood is a practice that has been used for a long time but has been evolving in lieu of the technological advancement that has recently been witnessed. Definition of a surrogate mother is one who carries a child through gestation on behalf of another woman. The reasons why this happens are varied and hence elicit different responses. Traditionally, surrogacy involved a man donating his sperm to a woman other than his wife in order for her to give birth to a child adopted by the childless couple. However, with time the term surrogate motherhood has evolved to involve many other practices (Franklin S. Dec.2006). The question is, does surrogate motherhood help the society or harm? As stated above, surrogate motherhood has been around for a long time but only the traditional methods were used to get a child. With the advances made in science concerning reproduction, there has evolved other ways of getting children through surrogacy. It consists of either artificial insemination, embryo adoption and donation, gestational surrogacy or the use of the ovum from the natural mother (Maule L. S. Schmid K. 2006). Each of these is different and as such use different methods to bring about conception and consequently birth of a child. In the early times, it would be used by childless couples but with the change in human sexuality it has come to include people who prefer to be homosexuals. They are now able to be parents of children who have their genes even if it is a family of two men or two women. Also with the rise of feminism, women who prefer not to get married are also using sperms from the sperm bank to get children. Initially one could only use the obvious method of sexual intercourse to get a woman pregnant but now there are sperm banks where men donate their sperms for commercial use. People in the world have different views concerning surrogate motherhood. Some are for it while others oppose it. Mostly it is for moral reasons that people oppose it but the legal aspect also sets in (McLachlan H. V. September 2008). Over time, there have been arguments for it in that it helps those who cannot be able to get a child of their own for different reasons. With the technology that is in place now, there are many ways to ensure that one gets a child and if they all fail then they can turn to surrogate motherhood. There are many people who view surrogacy as the ultimate gift from one woman to another. This is very common in New Zealand (Shaw R. 2008). When a woman cannot be able to get a child either due to lack of a womb or ovaries gets a gift from another one. This is seen as the greatest gift that one can give to another one. It is also viewed as a spiritual practice that enhances ones spirituality. In this way, a friend or relative can assist others get full satisfaction of having a family by providing them with the gift of life embodied in the child. There is opportunity for people to create kinship ties where there was no such hope. Kinship ties are very important to all individuals and hence to be greatly desired. Also, there seems to be a very special bond between grandparents and the children (Mander G. November 2007). When the children are unable to get children, the grandparents may be greatly affected and thus this comes as a solution. It is an opportunity for them to get a child who is genetically related to them instead of adopting a child who is not directly related to them (Hargreaves K. 2006). This is usually done through donor insemination and the resulting child is accepted by the entire family and thus a member.