What is Surrogate Pregnancy?

Thanks to the technology, we now have a way of transferring the responsibility of carrying pregnancy from a woman to another. Simply put in technical terms, a woman or couple can actually make an agreement with another to carry the fetus to delivery, after paying a fee.

In the earlier days when this was not possible the only way that a woman could have a child is by being ready to carry the pregnancy for a continuous nine month term. If you were not lucky, because of the medical reasons to bear a child, you had an option of adopting a child.

There are several reasons that are given to defend a surrogate agreement. The following points are significant

1. Infertility
There are women who can not basically conceive. These have an opportunity to have children in this way instead of adopting.

2. Medical conditions
Certain medical conditions may inhibit the growth of fetus to the delivery. There are others who have medical conditions which will make it dangerous for a woman to keep pregnancy or deliver. These will actually call for the surrogacy alternative instead of the adoption.

3. Free legal choice
One can take surrogacy on her own free will. This is actually legal in some countries. A woman may be forced by career and education pursuit to take the surrogacy alternative.

Surrogacy is basically a decision that has to be seriously thought of by both parties that are doing the contract. At times it may be required to have a third party like the agency, relative or a legal professional to assist in witnessing the transaction.

The surrogacy contract may take two forms:
1. Medical surrogacy
2. Gestational surrogacy

Under the medical surrogacy, the surrogate is actually impregnated using sperm from the father raising the child or from the sperm bank. In this particular case, the surrogate uses her own eggs , that are going to be fertilized by the sperm from the father or the sperm bank. The surrogate will be paid for the service of holding the baby in the womb for the gestation term
Under the gestational surrogacy, the eggs, sperms and at times the embryo are donated to the mother by the couple, and the task of the surrogate is only to ensure that the body is protected and fed while in the womb for the term.

The seeds and the sperms may sometimes not come from the contracting couple. They may even come from another source, or combination of both thee couple and others.

Surrogate contracts are a bit technical. One will be forced to really understand the laws that are related to a given contract to be very sure of what it entails. The laws of the country in question may prescribe the rights of all the parties. There must be a proper stipulation of the tasks that are expected to be performed by any of the parties in the contract. The contract should stipulate clearly when the payments are due, There are those that will cover for the surrogate mother’ expenses including hospital bills, upkeep during the time of pregnancy and immediately after, and others.