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Glossary of scientific and technical terms in bioengineering and biological engineering
Published in Megh R. Goyal, Scientific and Technical Terms in Bioengineering and Biological Engineering, 2018
Surrogate is a person or animal that functions as a substitute for another. In the case of a surrogate mother, a woman or female animal carries an embryo and ultimately gives birth to a baby that was formed from the egg of another female.
A Revolution by Stealth: A Legal-Ethical Analysis of the Rise of Pre-Conception Authorization of Surrogacy Agreements
Published in The New Bioethics, 2020
The main objective of these prohibitive and restrictive laws is to protect the rights, dignity and welfare of both surrogate mothers and children-to-be. A recurring thought is that surrogacy, particularly when offered commercially, may lead to situations in which surrogate mothers and children are treated as instruments to fulfil the wishes of others (i.e. the intending parents) or as commodities to be traded on the ‘reproductive market’. Furthermore, these policies aim to prevent the coming into existence of a ‘reproductive proletariat’ (Fabre-Magnan 2013, pp. 98–99) or ‘breeding class’. It is feared that especially women struggling with financial problems will see no other option than to offer their ‘reproductive services’, thereby exposing themselves to potentially exploitative and abusive practices.
Moral women, immoral technologies? Romanian women’s perceptions of assisted reproductive technologies versus adoption
Published in The New Bioethics, 2020
Alexandra Maftei, Andrei Corneliu Holman
Surrogacy is a form ART that involves a third party assisting in the conception process by hosting the pregnancy, either using their egg or the commissioning mother’s (Richards et al. 2012). It is believed that surrogacy has been practiced since ancient times (Schenker 1997). However, the exact precedent within the practice of gestating and relinquishing babies has not been established (van den Akker 2007). There are two separate methods of surrogacy, offering a full or partial genetic link. Gestational surrogacy takes uses the gametes of both intended mother and father, and the genetically related embryo is transferred into the surrogate mother via IVF. Therefore, gestational surrogacy implies a full genetic link to the intended couple. In genetic surrogacy, the baby is genetically related to the surrogate mother and intended father, since the surrogate mother is inseminated with the intended fathers’ sperm, using IVF. Consequently, genetic surrogacy offers a partial link to the intended couple.
North American surrogate reproductive mobilities incited by cross-border reproductive care
Published in Mobilities, 2020
Cross-border reproductive care entails the geographic mobility of intended parents whose global travel has been traced by social scientists working in Southeast Asia and Australia (Whittaker 2018), the Middle East (Inhorn 2015), Europe (Zanini 2011), and North America (Speier 2016). Within the past several years, India, Thailand, Mexico, Cambodia, and Nepal shut their borders to foreign intended parents. Given its highly unregulated, free market model of reproductive medicine, the United States remains one of the last ‘frontiers’ of cross-border reproductive care. International intended parents from 79 countries flock to the United States in search of assisted reproductive technologies. The Center for Disease Control estimates that 1 million cycles of IVF were performed for non-US residents between 2006 and 2013. In 2013, the American Society for Reproductive Medicine estimated that 4% of all IVF cycles were for non-US patients. The Center for Disease Control estimates that 1 million cycles of IVF were performed for non-US residents between 2006 and 2013. However, the high cost of assisted reproductive technologies in the United States does hinder access to most of the world’s population. It is only the very wealthy, elite or struggling middle class who are able to travel to the United States, since one surrogacy cycle may cost upwards from USD $100,000.