Social Surrogacy - Should Healthy Fertile People Be Able to Use a Surrogate Mother?

This is a loaded question full of ethical and valueinvestment for the wealthy.
judgments. Healthy fertile people do use surrogatesMany would say that clinics which require infertility on
and will continue to use surrogates where it is legal.the part of a parent for surrogacy do so for sound
For some reason the woman or the couple does notethical reasons. Should people be aloud to hire
want to go through a pregnancy and surrogacy hassomeone to have a child for them simply because
become an option for them.they can afford it or for their convenience? What
No one can determine this is the right thing for themare the reasons the couple do not want to carry
to do except the couple themselves with thetheir own child, vanity, convenience or a sense of
assistance of their doctor or a surrogacy clinic. Inentitlement?
some clinics there needs to be an infertility problemSome might ask whether a child produced in this way
for the surrogacy contract to proceed? In otherwould be loved to the same extent or whether it is
clinics it does not necessary.a genetic commodity. Should persons have the
People that do not accept surrogacy certainly will notprivilege (some might go as far as to call their right)
accept a healthy couple's decision to have ato ask another human being to take on the burden,
surrogate. We have been given the technology toinconvenience, pain and physical risk (which includes
make these choices. Some people are more open tothe risk of possible death) simply because they can
it than others. For any surrogacy arrangement, aafford to pay for it.
couple has to be fairly well to do. We hear aboutThe fact that some people are so financially
celebrities hiring surrogates often, whether they aredesperate that they would take this risk or have
healthy or not. It has become a choice. People willaltruistic reasons so that another person may have a
make value judgments as they see fit.child does not remove any of the ethical concerns.
Although it takes a considerable sum of money forThose who think that having a child in this way is an
anyone to use a surrogate mother, some people areoutpouring of altruism for the surrogate mother may
well off enough that they may use a surrogate foravoid ethical dilemmas simply by giving the amount of
convenience or to avoid personal health risks. This isthe fee to a young woman or couple who are not
ethically problematic for many people.financially well off.
Some couples are desperate to have a child and areOne might also question whether clinics that do not
willing to invest large sums of money to becomerequire infertility for surrogacy have an over arching
parents. This is a much different issue for them thenmonetary and profit motive which presents another
for people who are able to undergo natural childbirth.ethical dilemma of its own.
Put another way, it is not the same level of