Someone or something that takes the place of another person or thing.
A person or object in someone’s life that functions as a substitute for another person. In the treatment of sexual problems, when the patient does not have a partner to cooperate in treatment, a surrogate provided by the therapist acts as a sexual partner who gives service to the patient up to and including intercourse. According to psychoanalysts, people and objects in dreams can be surrogates for important individuals in a patient’s life.
A term applied in medicine to a substance used as a substitute for another. The term is also applied to a woman who agrees to become pregnant and give birth to a child on the understanding that she will give up the child to the parents who have contracted with her for the surrogacy arrangement. When in vitro fertilization proved successful, it became possible to transfer a fertilized egg to a ‘uterus of choice’. Artificial insemination of the potential surrogate mother using sperm from the putative ‘father’ is also practiced. Surrogacy has thrown up a host of ethical and legal problems which have yet to be satisfactorily resolved.
Something or someone replacing another; a substitute, especially an emotional substitute for another.
A medicine used as an alternative to a pricier type or to one that may be problematic in specific situations.