Mother, Mother, Who Art Thou?

Are you fond of watching afternoon soaps? In GMA's Dramarama sa hapon, one hit show is entitled "Sa Piling ni Nanay." The show although quite melodramatic like most Filipino soaps are, tackles a very sensitive issue that is very controversial worldwide - surrogacy.

A surrogacy arrangement is the carrying of a pregnancy for intended parents. It has two kinds: the traditional and gestational surrogacy. In traditional surrogacy, a woman acting as the surrogate mother gets artificially inseminated with a man’s sperm. She then carries the baby and delivers it for the father and his partner to raise. The baby obviously is that of the man and the surrogate mother without any direct relation to the real mother. On the other hand, gestational surrogacy (In-vitro Fertilization, IVF) gathers egg cell from the mother and sperm cell from the father and injects the embryo in the uterus of a surrogate mother. The baby’s DNA print will then show that it has no direct relation with the surrogate mother aside from being its carrier.

[endif]--Surrogacy is positively intended for some health risk, but certain legal, moral and ethical issues still arise because of this practice. As of 2013, locations where a woman is basically or legally paid to carry the embryo through IVF include India, Georgia, Russia, Thailand, Ukraine and few states in US. Problems usually occur when the surrogate mother starts running after her legal rights. The legal assumption has bee that the woman giving birth to a child is the child’s legal mother. This becomes a problem if after some time of carrying the baby, the surrogate mother develops a feeling of possession to what is inside her womb like it is her own offspring. The real parents then will have to deal with losing the child, as well as losing a hefty amount of money. If the surrogate mother changes her mind to keep the child, the intended mother cannot refuse or contradict the decision.

This is why many opposes this medical practice. The Catholic Church itself claims that surrogacy disrespects the very concept of procreation. In a country like ours, it sounds immoral to have somebody outside of your marriage to carry for you your child, yet if you are a couple who can’t possibly create a baby on your own, would you not try all the available option?

The thing is, since the issue is still new in our country, no definite laws have been passed yet to amend the problem. When you come to think of it though, it’s the baby who will carry the burden of all these irregularities. It will have a lasting impact on his morale.

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