Ethical and Legal Issues in Health Care: Surrogacy

Introduction

Having children is one of the biggest goals of everyone no matter in what country as having children can expand the family tree. However, not everyone can have their own children. So, Surrogacy becomes a controversial way to help the couples and individuals who are not able to give birth, to have their children. Surrogacy violates the morality and meaning of giving birth. Therefore, I object the concept of surrogacy and that should not be existed in the world.

Explanation About against Surrogacy

As I know, Surrogacy is defined as a surrogate mother is pregnant with the child who has gene from another person or couple and then returns the baby to the intended parent once that baby is born. Therefore, I think this concept brings out many ethical issues. First of all, surrogacy can be a tool for surrogate mother to earn money. In general, the intended couples of the baby will give a lot of money to surrogate mother for getting the baby, Furthermore, they will pay for the medical and another expense including clothing, food, etc. According to the news from Bang Kok Post in 2014, Thailand has a district called Lom Sak, there were 25 surrogate mothers in the different village in there. 12 pregnant surrogate mothers were sent to Bang Kok for giving birth. A Villager in Lom Sak stated that a female got 350,000 baht so that she became a surrogate mother. As that woman had poor economic status, she accepted to be a surrogate mother in order to raise her family. For this reason, surrogacy mother will be more active into surrogacy services because they think that surrogacy can be a method for them to gain wealth, they just need to let the baby grow by providing the womb. Even, this situation is more likely occurs in developed countries. Ukraine is one of the developed countries in the world. The law in Ukraine allow Surrogacy to carry on in local.

According to the survey of Ukrainian Association of Reproductive Medicine in 2018, there are 6,0000 children have been born through surrogacy in Ukraine in the past decade, 70% clients are foreigners. Moreover, the law in Ukraine does not limit the charge of surrogacy, that means that the Ukrainian government allow the surrogate women can negotiate the price regarding surrogacy.

From this phenomenon, I think surrogacy is a serious challenge to ethic because it destroys the original concept of gestating and birthing. Ethic will talk us about what is true or false base on the experience that we have in daily life. Most importantly, ethic brings out that a baby should not be born by the third person and surrogacy is just break down this principle on an ethical perspective. Therefore, surrogacy distorts the value of life. Besides, surrogate mother rather selling their own organ and even babies to get money than cherishing their own body, they just want to get rid of poverty, even the governments are the same. That is why the Commerical surrogacy has existed.

This situation causes children to be a tool for women to earn money and affect the view of the public about surrogacy in developed countries and even the world. Therefore, Surrogacy completely breaks down the ethic and it is a wrong behaviour in the society although surrogacy is permitted in the laws of some countries.

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The next ethical issue leaded by surrogacy is the surrogate mother would have a complicated relationship or attachment with the baby. In the process of pregnancy, the gestational mothers need to carry the baby until the baby is delivered and return the baby to the intended couple or individual. According to the theory of Rubin, the pregnant women will develop various degrees of attachment to their fetus as there are changes in the aspect of physical and mental. Physically, the baby is grown in the uterus of the surrogate mothers. Surrogate mothers think that the gestational process can build up a connection with the baby since the baby grows because of absorbing the nutrition from their body. In the meantime, surrogate mothers have responsibility for the conception. At that moment, they would find that they have to protect the baby and build up a close attachment even the baby does not have their gene. However, surrogate mothers need to detach herself from the baby after giving birth. It is likely that surrogate mothers may not want to give up the baby, which cause a big ethical problem, as the baby supposes to belong to the intended couples on the physiology perspective. According to the ethical theory of Kantian deontology, we should not to use other people as a means to our ends, everyone's existence has its own purpose. Therefore, I realise that surrogacy cannot meet the principle of ethic because surrogate mothers use their times and body for a born of life, so they may not want to give up the baby, but the intended couples or individuals just pay money and then have the children. In addition, the process of conceiving is a promise to a child.

Unfortunately, the couples or people who are not able to have children, just do not make that promise and respect the children. They just want to fulfil their desire only, which is shameful and not ethical. As a result, the concept of surrogacy causes conflicts to the ethic and cannot be possible.

Suggestion

If I were a nurse, I meet a lady in ward, who plans to be a surrogate mother, I would not encourage her to be a surrogate mother and some suggestions would be given to her. Firstly, I would like to talk to her about the potential risk of surrogacy at first and then recommend her to have psychological counselling. As that lady may not really understand the concept of Surrogacy and the consequence of her action. As a nurse, I need to tell that lady that pregnancy is risky for the life of the mother. In addition, there are a lot of physical and psychological burden on the surrogate mother. Therefore, it helps that lady to understand everything regarding Surrogacy, that can avoid her to make a wrong decision. Besides, in the process of psychological counselling, Psychologists will assess her mental status base on her condition and try to analyse the situation by using different angles in order to show her that Surrogacy is not a good thing. Therefore, that lady can think carefully about her plan and change her mind.

Secondly, If the purpose of being a surrogate mother for that lady is earning money, I would tell her that there are many ways to get the money instead of becoming a surrogacy mother. If she has poor economic status, I would like to recommend her to get the Comprehensive Social Security Assistance (CSSA) through the assistance of social worker. As social worker can help that lady to apply CSSA after evaluating her condition. That can help her have a stable life and no worry about the economy. Therefore, that lady does not need to plan to be a surrogate mother and not use Surrogacy to gain wealth.

Conclusion

To conclude, Surrogacy violate ethic and human integrity, which cannot be beneficial to the development of human and the system of value in society. Life is precious and meaningful, the world should ban this action and give the advice to help the surrogate mother in order to stop the action.

Reference List

1. IVF Australia (2019). Surrogacy. Retrieved from https://www.ivf.com.au/treatments/donor-programme/surrogacy.
2. Mordern Family Surrogate Center. (2019). The Ethical Issues of Surrogacy. Retrieved fromhttps://www.modernfamilysurrogacy.com/the-ethical-issues-of-surrogacy.
3. South China Morning Post. (2014). Is surrogate motherhood morally correct? Retrievedfrom https://www.scmp.com/article/991981/surrogate-motherhood-morally-correct.
4. 拾方視角 (Ed.). (2018).烏克蘭如何逐步成為外國人找尋代母產子的龐大市場？代母女性又怎樣看待這「職業」？. Retrieved fromhttps://www.villagedoor.org/%E7%83%8F%E5%85%8B%E8%98%AD%E5%A6%82%E4%BD%95%E9%80%90%E6%AD%A5%E6%88%90%E7%82%BA%E5%A4%96%E5%9C%8B%E4%BA%BA%E6%89%BE%E5%B0%8B%E4%BB%A3%E6%AF%8D%E7%94%A2%E5%AD%90%E7%9A%84%E9%BE%90%E5%A4%A7%E5%B8%82/
5. 每日頭條 (Ed.). (2014). 泰國貧窮地區出現「代孕村」 25名婦女代人產子 . Retrievedfrom https://kknews.cc/world/z3mj6og.html.
6. Olga B.A. van den Akker. (2006). Psychosocial aspects of surrogate motherhood. Retrievedfrom https://academic.oup.com/humupd/article/13/1/53/749903.
7. Lisbona, T. (2016). The Viability of Surrogacy. Retrieved fromhttp://moglen.law.columbia.edu/twiki/bin/view/LawContempSoc/TamarLisbonaFirstEssay.