Surrogacy itself calls up a lot of moral and ethical concerns, mostly because of the money that is involved.
Also the fact that a childless couple are asking, sometimes, a complete stranger to become pregnant for them and then give them the child after the birth.
Depending on the infertility problems of the intended couple, the surrogate mother will become pregnant in some very different ways.
Firstly there is the traditional method, which is where the intended fathers sperm is used to artificially inseminate the surrogate mother.
This is using the surrogate mothers egg, so she will be the legal and the biological mother which may cause some people problems, ethically and morally.
Then we have where both of the intended parents are infertile, so a sperm donor is used to make the surrogate mother pregnant, and thirdly we have the gestational surrogate method.
This is where the intended mothers egg is fertilized with the intended fathers sperm in a laboratory and then it is placed into the surrogate mother to grow until ready for birth.
This method is used because the intended mother either can not carry a baby full term, has had a part hysterectomy, or has other medical reasons that prevent her from becoming pregnant.
In the majority of these cases, the surrogate mother will be giving this service due to altruistic reasoning.
She will still receive reimbursement for her and her family for any out of pocket expenses she may incur in the 9 months while she is carrying the child'.
This amount of money is called the base fee.
This is an amount of money that is usually split up into 9 monthly payments.
The amounts are never equal in their amounts because of the fact that a miscarriage is more likely in the first three months than at any other time during the pregnancy.
So, understandably, the first couple of payments will be less than offered later in the pregnancy so that the intended parents will not have to pay too much for a failed pregnancy but the surrogate mother is still reasonably compensated for the amount of time she was pregnant.
As the months go on,, and the fetus grows the monthly amounts will get bigger as the surrogates living fees will obviously be rising.
The amount of money that is paid to the surrogate mother is a base fee and will not get any larger, the amount is just spread out over the 9 months in varying amounts.
You might be wondering who sets these fees and the answer is, the legal system.
No agency or attorney will ask for any more than the local judges will allow.
If they did, it would call into question the legality of any agreement made by them.
These fees are the fees that are paid in the U.
S.
A.
And as the majority of people know, there is such a thing as International surrogacy.
In other countries, such as India for instance, the costs for surrogate mothers are a lot less.
Having said this though the cost of living in such countries is a lot less as well, so it does bring to mind the question, why are they doing it? Is it for altruistic reasons or is it for the money.