Surrogacy: Is It Right or Wrong? Essay Example

One of the most controversial topics in our society today is surrogacy; some states have made it illegal while others strongly feel it is okay. So is it right or wrong? The answer is simple. “Surrogacy, as a family-building option, implicates both the right of privacy and procreative freedom” (McFall and Kalikow 208). Although surrogacy is commonly seen as immoral and wrong, women who are unable to have children should be entitled to a surrogate carrier. Infertility is the leading reasons for surrogacy being a woman’s choice. “Women or couples who choose surrogacy often do so because they are unable to conceive due to a missing or abnormal uterus, have experienced multiple pregnancy losses, or have had multiple in vitro fertilization attempts that have failed” (Rogers). Infertility affects approximately 6.1 million American couples, which is about 10 percent of Americans (Fertility FAQ). The psychological and emotional consequences can be devastating, and infertility can consume those afflicted by it” (Kalikow 208). For all these infertile women, having a surrogate mother, or “gestational carrier,” is their best option since there are many limitations with adoptions, such as age restrictions, costs, and limited number of adoptable children, especially healthy newborns (Kalikow 208). In Bree Ruzzi’s case, she was unable to have a baby due to her upcoming treatment of chemotherapy and turned to her own gestational carrier. Although surrogacy has had bad rumors, it offers one method of achieving parenthood to couples or women who could never have a baby by any other means. Gestational means the baby is biologically the woman or the couple’s. “Undeniably, few couples of the fertile world would choose to forego having their own genetic offspring” (Kalikow 208). The great truth about gestational carriers is that their baby is actually created from the woman or couple; the woman’s egg and the man’s sperm. A number of senators from Pennsylvania even co-sponsored a