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Certain guidelines have been laid down to try to minimise misuse of the surrogacy technique; and a surrogate motherhood contract needs to be drawn up, which should specify that the child will become the legitimate adopted child of the infertile couple, i.e, the intended parents. This needs to be signed by the couple, the surrogate, and her husband.
The "legal waters" of surrogate motherhood will continue to be murky, and there are no laws or guidelines in India as yet. This is why the element of trust between the couple and the surrogate mother is so important.
It is vital that the surrogate and the couple consider the future of the child. The receiving mother should ideally be present at the birth and care for the baby in hospital. She can even be prepared for breast feeding (induced lactation) by hormone treatment.
Surrogacy has spawned a host of legal and emotional issues to which there are no "right" answers. For example:
Many people are worried about the possibility of the surrogacy technique being misused. They feel it may allow the exploitation of poor women who may be used as "mother machines" to bear babies - much like the wet nurses of yesteryear.
Surrogacy has received quite a lot of bad press recently, especially when the contract goes sour and there is a dispute over the baby between the commissioning parents and the surrogate mother. Such a situation makes headline news. The Courts then need to have the wisdom of Solomon to assign the rights of the "genetic" mother; the "birth" mother; and the "social or rearing" mother.
Nevertheless, we must remember that surrogacy does offer one method of achieving parenthood to a few couples who could never have a baby by any other means.
The road to surrogacy is a rocky one and requires much thought. This is perhaps the most complex and difficult way to achieve parenthood.
© Dr. Aniruddha Malpani and Dr. Anjali Malpani www.drmalpani.com
Credits: How to Have a Baby: Overcoming Infertility
