SURROGATE MOTHERHOOD - MORAL AND LEGAL ASPECTS

Abstract

The public controversy over the results of modern biological sciences, especially the new reproductive technologies, is accelerating. Undoubtedly, surrogate motherhood is the most controversial of them. For most surrogate motherhood agreements, the gestational mother is expected to give up the child that she has given birth to to the other couple – for this reason surrogate motherhood is found controversial. Moreover, many people think that it is the equivalent of selling children, can be exploitative of the surrogate, and violates a mother’s fundamental right to raise her child. Even altruistic surrogacy is not considered to be moral because women who choose to bear children voluntarily for someone else reap disdain and are seen as cold, heartless, and mercenary, because they seem to give away their babies. There are also a lot of legal problems. First, the answer to the question which woman is the mother must be given: the one who donates her ova or the gestational mother. Furthermore, the problem of baby-selling and surrogate motherhood ought to be analyzed and compared. In the Polish law there is no direct regulation of surrogate motherhood – for this reason foreign legislations can suggest some solutions. Some suggestions can be taken from Christian, Jewish, and Buddhist morality. Undoubtedly, the last word belongs to us, but we should not forget the baby and its rights.