Altruistic Surrogacy Arrangements

Surrogacy Couples around the world find out that they’re unable to conceive children. This is a very heart breaking and detrimental situation in anyones life who is trying to have a child. Infertility affects more than 7 million people in the United States, and about 12 percent of women of childbearing age are considered infertile. Most infertility cases are treated with drug or hormone therapies or surgery. However, about 3 percent of cases require more advanced techniques, such as surrogacy. A surrogate is a woman who carries a child for an individual or a couple. Stories of surrogacy reach back to the Bible with the story of Abraham, his wife, Sarah, and her handmaiden, Hagar. In this story, Sarah finds she is unable to conceive and arranges for Abraham to impregnate Hagar, who goes on to conceive Ishmael. There are two types of surrogacy options, one is traditional surrogacy and the other is gestational surrogacy. A traditional surrogate is a woman who donates her own egg and then carries the pregnancy. The surrogate's egg is fertilized through artificial insemination with the sperm of the father or a sperm donor. Traditional surrogates are genetically related to the child because their own eggs are used in the process. A gestational surrogate or also known as a gestational carrier, are not biologically or genetically related to the child she carries. Gestational carriers become pregnant through the process of in vitro fertilization, where an embryo or embryos created from the eggs and sperm of the intended parents. Donor eggs and donor sperm are selected by the intended parents are implanted in the uterus for the gestational period of 40 weeks. Intended parents and surrogates have to consider what type of surrogacy arrangement they feel like they are comfortable with. There are two common types of arrangements pertaining to surrogacy, which are commercial and altruistic. In commercial surrogacy the surrogate is paid for her time and effort, any travel