It should also be mentioned, that there are some women, who are going to become surrogate mothers and intended parents, who choose independent arrangements. In this case they fulfill as much of the work, as they are able to by themselves, without any side assistant being provided. This helps the intended parents to save a great deal of money, but such an option has its drawbacks as well, as the contracts they sign up may have not all the necessary “what ifs”, although lawyers are usually used, while their drawings up, though not always. The problem of the financial arrangements may also be an awkward issue for surrogates and for the intended parents as well.
The widely publicized “Baby M” case, which took place in the court of New Jersey, raised the question of the surrogacy being moral or legal in general. A woman, Mary Both Whitehead by name, who served as a traditional surrogate mother and carried a baby for William and Elizabeth Stern, declared that she could not fore fill her contract and give the baby. The first court ruling granted custody to the intended parents, because of the binding contract. After that Mary Both Whitehead made an appeal, and custody was granted to the intended parents again, as there was the court’s decision, that it was in the best interests of the baby. But finally some of the surrogate mother’s parental rights were reinstated and she could visit her baby.
Surrogacy, based on Commerce, appeared in the United States at the end of 1970’s, when Noel Keane, a lawyer, arranged the first third party arranged surrogacies, and in no time he opened his first surrogacy agency. After he had challenged the legislature in the Michigan State, he moved to additional agencies, which were opened, and there he began his successful attempts to change the laws, affecting surrogacy arrangements.
Since the first “legal” surrogacy, there were delivered more than 35,000 babies in the result of In Vitro Fertilization. It is the newest ability for couples, who can not have children, singles men or women, etc to become parents. Surrogacy appeals are different; they vary from person to person. So, some parents wish to have a baby, who is related to them biologically, for others surrogate motherhood becomes the last resort because of some definite laws, of their age, state of health, or poor adoption odds for those particular circumstances, they have, and some couples or people simply can not wait too long to have a baby (the waiting for adoption lists are too long). There are many people or family couples, who find the amount of control over the genetics and pregnancy appealing. Most of the couples, which wish to use the services of a woman to become a surrogate mother for their future babies are infertile or of the same sex. Anyway, they can not have their own children, but it is not rare as well, that intended parents become people, who already have a child or even two or more, and one of them may suffer from the so – called “Secondary Infertility”, the result of which may become some disease, operation, or health condition worsening. There are not only family couples, who want to have a baby using the help of a surrogate mother, some single people: women and men as well also desire a child through surrogacy. Most of these people are between the ages of 25 and 55. Most women, who decide to become a surrogate mother are married, they work in fields, where they take care for others: nursing, teaching, and so on. These women usually have their children, and they commonly explain their wish to become a surrogate mother by the desire to pass on the joys of parenthood they have received from their own children. Women, who choose to become a surrogate mother, may also do it in order to earn quite a lot of money. There are many single mothers, college students, stay at home parents. They are Caucasian Christian American women as a rule, but there are surrogacy mothers from all races, religions, socioeconomic backgrounds. Their ages range from 22 to 35 years of age.
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