Surrogacy is an arrangement in which a woman carries and delivers a child for
another couple or person. This woman, the surrogate mother, may be the child's genetic mother(called
traditional surrogacy), or she may be genetically unrelated to the child
(called gestational surrogacy).
If
the surrogate receives compensation beyond the reimbursement of medical and
other reasonable expenses, the arrangement is called commercial surrogacy;
otherwise, it is often referred to as altruistic surrogacy.
In
a traditional surrogacy, the child may be conceived via home artificial insemination using fresh or frozen sperm or impregnated via IUI (intrauterine insemination), or ICI(intracervical insemination) performed
at a health clinic.
A
gestational surrogacy requires the implantation of a previously created embryo, and for this
reason the process always takes place in a clinical setting.
The
intended parent or parents, sometimes called
the social parents, may arrange a surrogate pregnancy because of female infertility, other medical
issues which make
pregnancy or delivery impossible, risky or otherwise undesirable, or because
the intended parent or parents are male. The sperm or eggs may be provided by the 'commissioning'
parents, butdonor sperm,
eggs and embryos may also be used.
Although
the idea of vanity surrogacy is a common trope in popular culture and
anti-surrogacy arguments there
is little or no data showing that women choose surrogacy for reasons of aesthetics or convenience.
The
legality and costs of surrogacy vary widely between jurisdictions,
with the result that there is a high rate of international and interstate
surrogacy activity.
