Ever since this country started riding on the ‘liberal and progressive’ bandwagon, we have been moving from one intense debate to another. Following the recent spate of articles in the media, it seems it is now the turn of surrogate motherhood, also known as contract pregnancy, and embryo freezing to be in the limelight and, hence, attract public attention.

Surrogacy, or contract pregnancy, is when a woman agrees, often for money, to give birth to a child resulting from artificial insemination or the implantation of an already fertilised egg and who surrenders any parental rights to a third party.

There are two kinds of surrogacy: gestational surrogacy and traditional surrogacy.

Gestational surrogacy is when a woman carries a baby for an intended couple. This has no genetic relationship to the child the woman is carrying and both the ovum and the sperm come from the intended couple.

Traditional surrogacy is when the woman uses one of her own eggs to create the child she is carrying for the intended couple. Here, sperm from the intended father or from a donor is used. The woman carrying the child for the intended couple is actually the biological mother of the baby she is carrying but would surrender any parental rights to the intended couple.

The million dollar question about surrogate motherhood has always revolved around ethics. Is there really anything ethically wrong with surrogate motherhood?

One of the major arguments against surrogacy is that the act itself is, in principle, morally flawed. Other arguments against surrogacy are numerous and those who oppose surrogacy include the Catholic Church and some feminist groups.

One of the arguments in favour of surrogacy is that of autonomy. According to this view, it is a woman’s right to decide to use her body to have a baby for another couple. Another argument in favour of surrogacy is that it may be the only way to address some forms of infertility.

However, one of the most pertinent questions about surrogacy that comes to mind is: what about the rights of the child?

Surrogacy is considered as another means of exploiting women

Does it ever occur to us that, through surrogacy and other processes, like IVF, we are creating two kinds of embryos? There are those embryos conceived through sexual intercourse between a husband and a wife and there are those embryos whose conception is conducted in a laboratory in a Petri dish and then frozen as we would freeze a vegetable or piece of meat.

Where does equality fit in this equation? Isn’t it the right of every child to be conceived and carried in his biological mother’s womb? Isn’t it the right of every child to be the fruit of the mystery of marital embrace between husband and wife? Who are we to deprive a child from the intense bond between a child and his biological mother during pregnancy?

According to the Catholic Church’s teachings surrogacy is morally wrong because marriage, sex and children are to be united and no third party shouldbe involved.

There is a great possibility that surrogacy could be considered as adultery. This is because even though there is no sexual relationship involved, there is still a reproductive relationship involving another woman outside marriage.

Another pertinent question about surrogacy is: what about payment? Are women so readily available to put their womb up for rent as they would a garage, a house or an apartment and thus start making money off the miracle of procreation and reproduction?

In a brief about the court case of Baby M (when a US court considered surrogacy for the first time), Roman Catholicbishops argued that surrogate motherhood “promotes the exploitation of women and infertile couples and the dehumanisation of babies”.

Some critics view surrogacy as another way of trading the woman’s body or, rather, another way of exploiting women’s bodies.

Furthermore, surrogacy is considered as another means of exploiting women, particularly those women from a lower socio-economic status who may be pressured to participate in such arrangements to help support their families, thus another form of slavery.

Bro Aaron Zahra is a psychology and philosophy graduate.