Opinion ID: 1313999
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: gestational surrogacy

Text: Recent advances in medical technology have dramatically expanded the means of human reproduction. Among the new technologies are in vitro fertilization, embryo and gamete freezing and storage, gamete intra-fallopian transfer, and embryo transplantation. (Shultz, Reproductive Technology and Intent-Based Parenthood: An Opportunity for Gender Neutrality, 1990 Wis.L.Rev. 297, 299 fn. 5 [hereafter Reproductive Technology ].) Gestational surrogacy is the result of two of these techniques: in vitro fertilization and embryo transplantation. (See Shalev, Birth Power: The Case for Surrogacy (Yale U. Press 1989) p. 115.) In vitro fertilization or IVF is the fertilization of a human egg outside the human body in a laboratory. Children that have been conceived this way are often called test tube babies, because their actual conception took place in a petri dish. The first live birth of a child conceived in vitro occurred in 1979 in Great Britain after 20 years of research by a British team. (Shalev, Birth Power: The Case for Surrogacy, supra, at p. 105.) To facilitate the retrieval or harvesting of eggs for in vitro fertilization, a woman ingests fertility hormones to induce superovulation or the production of multiple eggs. The eggs are then removed through aspiration, a nonsurgical technique, or through an invasive surgical procedure known as laparoscopy. (See generally Developments in the Law: Medical Technology and the Law (1990) 103 Harv.L.Rev. 1519, 1537-1542 [hereafter Medical Technology ].) To undergo superovulation and egg retrieval is taxing, both physically and emotionally; the hormones used for superovulation produce bodily changes similar to those experienced in pregnancy, while the surgical removal of mature eggs has been likened to caesarian-section childbirth. ( Id., at p. 1540; Shalev, Birth Power: The Case for Surrogacy, supra, at pp. 117-118.) After removal, eggs are exposed to live sperm in a petri dish. If an egg is fertilized, the resulting zygote is allowed to divide and become multicellular before uterine implantation. The expense and low success rate of in vitro fertilization demonstrate just how much prospective parents are willing to endure to achieve biological parenthood. ( Medical Technology, supra, 103 Harv.L.Rev. at p. 1539.) Generally, an egg fertilized in vitro is implanted in the uterus of the woman who produced it. The technique, however, allows for embryo transplantation, which is the transfer of an embryo formed from one woman's egg to the uterus of another woman who will gestate the fetus to term. This can take place in at least three different situations: (1) a woman may donate an egg that, when fertilized, will be implanted in the uterus of a woman who intends to raise the child; (2) the woman who provides the egg may herself intend to raise the child carried to term by a gestational surrogate; or (3) a couple desiring a child may arrange for a surrogate to gestate an embryo produced from an egg and sperm, both donated (perhaps by close relatives of the couple). (Goodwin, Determination of Legal Parentage in Egg Donation, Embryo Transplantation, and Gestational Surrogacy Arrangements (1992) 26 Fam.L.Q. 275, 276-277 [hereafter Determination of Legal Parentage ].) The division of the female reproductive role in gestational surrogacy points up the three discrete aspects of motherhood: genetic, gestational and social. The woman who contributes the egg that becomes the fetus has played the genetic role of motherhood; the gestational aspect is provided by the woman who carries the fetus to term and gives birth to the child; and the woman who ultimately raises the child and assumes the responsibilities of parenthood is the child's social mother. (Shalev, Birth Power: The Case for Surrogacy, supra, at p. 115; see also Macklin, Artificial Means of Reproduction and Our Understanding of the Family (1991) 21 Hastings Center Rep. 5, 6.)