An arrangement by which a woman agrees to become inseminated by a man, generally through artificial insemination, bear a child, and then give the baby for adoption to the man and his wife, who is unable to bear children herself. Though physically very simple, surrogate parenting is fraught with legal, emotional, and social pitfalls, including uncertain legal status, social pressures for and against the procedure from various quarters, and feelings of confusion, sad¬ ness, and guilt, as the “Baby M” case, for one, amply demonstrated. Laws regarding surrogate arrangements vary widely, and the legal status of agreements among the parties is unclear. For the prospective parents, the major risk is that the surrogate mother will decide not to give the child up for adoption. Though a seemingly simple solution to a situation when the wife is infertile but the husband is not, parents considering this course should explore the ramifications of surrogacy very carefully before making any decision.
An alternative method of childbearing for an infertile couple in which the wife is unable to bear a child. The surrogate mother agrees to be artificially inseminated by the husband’s sperm and to relinquish the baby to the couple. Another approach is to retrieve eggs from the infertile wife and have them impregnated in vitro by her husband. The fertilized ovum is then implanted in the surrogate mother.