Surrogacy Business: Ethical? Legal?

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A woman rents her womb to carry the baby that other people will raise. The process is carried out, in general, after an agreement has been established and that can range from the payment of a monthly payment and medical check-ups for the pregnant woman or the delivery of a large sum of money at the end of the pregnancy. Once the delivery takes place, the contracting couple will take the newborn home. It is the so-called surrogacy.

The process can occur through several modalities:

• The eggs come from the pregnant woman and will be fertilized by the sperm of the man who will act as the legal father of the baby or another man.

• The contracting couple provides her eggs and sperm, and the contracted woman will only lend her uterus for the development of the baby for 9 months.

• A different couple to the one contracting the womb will provide the genetic material that will be implanted in the surrogate.

Is surrogacy legal?

Many couples who want to have children and cannot for various reasons look for healthy women who will lend their wombs to gestate them. But is this a matter that works protected by law?

In Colombia, for example, there is a great legal vacuum regarding the issue of surrogacy, which has led to the generation of silent actions that range from the offer of uteruses on social networks to the participation of doctors, nurses, and notaries. both in the monthly pregnancy checks and in the preparation of the documents that the parents (usually foreigners) will obtain to be able to take the baby out of the country. The name of the biological mother will never appear registered anywhere. The matter has become a business that feeds a supply and demand market that moves a lot of money.

A baby gestated in the womb of a Colombian woman could be worth between $4,000 and $8,000 to the interested couple. Although the Colombian Congress has tried to regulate the practice by drafting 16 bills, it has not been possible for them to pass the required debates, since the claim is that surrogacy ceases to be a business and is only valid for altruistic reasons.

Some Mexican states have regulations for surrogacy and Uruguay has current regulations that cover the issue. Brazil, for its part, has a Resolution issued by the Federal Council of Medicine that establishes parameters for surrogacy, but there are no regulations established by Congress.

Most of the Latin countries in which the regulations to regulate surrogacy are managed argue that the process should be free, that is, the surrogate would do it out of altruism and not for economic interests.

Voices against and for

The absence of regulations in most Latin American countries has led to the generation of a kind of "black market" for babies in which female bidders and couples who pay seem to move comfortably. Beyond whether surrogacy is legal, some point out that contracting a womb is a practice that contributes to the exploitation of women with low economic resources and little academic training, for which the dignity and rights of both women and men are committed to these women as of the children born because of this practice.

Likewise, the fact that babies lose their status as human beings by turning them into vulgar merchandise is questioned, and the emotional and psychological consequences that may affect women who rent their wombs out of economic necessity are ignored. Many opinions point out that this is a type of crime called "trafficking in persons."

Women who intend to lend their womb to gestate a baby, defend their decision, even if they are not covered by the law. Their arguments? Help couples who want to be parents, solve their economic situation and give a child the chance to grow up in a home without financial deprivation.

The contracting couples argue that fertility treatments are extremely expensive and exhausting and, many times, there is no guarantee of a happy conclusion, on the other hand, the adoption processes are much more complicated and delayed than waiting for a woman who receives money for the fruit of her womb give birth to a healthy baby that they can take home.

We would like to know your point of view

Your opinion about surrogate motherhood is important to THE WOMAN POST magazine. We want your comments based on these questions: Should the pregnant woman provide her womb free of charge? Is this a black market for babies? Does surrogacy ignore the rights of the birth mother and child? Is it okay for a couple who can't have children to pay a woman to rent her womb? Is surrogacy another mechanism for the exploitation of women? Could the baby born from a rented womb be classified as a commodity? Although the possibility of having a baby of their own is urgent, should a couple ignore the laws? Thank you for reading us, we await your point of view on the subject in the comments section or on our networks!