Surrogacy
According to Wikipedia, Surrogacy is an arrangement in which a woman carries and delivers a child for another couple or person. This woman, the surrogate mother, may be the child's genetic mother (called traditional surrogacy), or she may be biologically unrelated to the child (called gestational surrogacy). However novel it may seem, the entire concept of surrogacy dates back to ancient Babylon, where surrogacy was practiced on women who wanted to avoid an otherwise inevitable divorce due to infertility. With the technology boom, comes once-in-a-while ground-breaking phenomena and clinical surrogacy is just another one in the field of medical sciences. With new phenomena come several question marks. Will it prove to be an answer to the not-so-profound problems of our society, exempli gratia, the ever-increasing divorce rate? Will it be just another breakthrough that will subside in anonymity due to legal issues? But the most important question that arises is: Is it the need of the hour?
Moving on to the social significance of surrogacy, we personally believe, that surrogacy may well be the factor that can help in bridging the racial divide, to that scenario where even a black woman can conceive a white child and vice-versa. Imagine a world where races live in harmony unaware of racial prejudices, and that too in a single family! Even infertile mothers and homosexuals can also experience the joy of parenthood, all thanks to surrogacy. However, we can never overlook the negative aspects of a highly-controversial subject like surrogacy. In certain cases, the emotional trauma caused to the surrogate mothers, who has to sacrifice her child after bearing it in her womb for 9 months and undergoing the immense pain of labor, is terrible. As we have suggested, surrogacy is very significant socially, and keeping in mind the very unorthodox nature and highly-debated ethical-orientation, it may well take time to carve its place in today's society.
Not only social, but surrogacy also seems to be facing many legal issues. The "Baby M".controversy that occurred in the United States is a very popular epitome. India has well become a hub for surrogacy, and hence many citizenship issues have arose, since children born to Indian surrogate mothers have been denied citizenship in certain countries. In our opinion, this upto an extent demotivates the entire idea of successful implementation of surrogacy and also confines the public perspective of such a wide concept to a much narrower context.
Every tale has two sides. Surrogacy, like every other concept, is loaded with pros and cons. Cutting down on the global aspect for the moment and keeping in mind, India, surrogacy may certainly assist in reducing the number of divorces due to infertility. But on the other hand, in a country like India, where population explosion is proving to be quite a headache, there is no place for surrogacy. Couples unable to give birth to an offspring may well turn to orphanages for adoption, rather than increase the toll on the largest baby-manufacturing unit in the world, that is India, if you haven't guessed by now. We suggest, adoption may by far be a better option than surrogacy in India, since not only will it serve the purpose, but will also keeps a check on the population growth. A wide subject like surrogacy should definitely be publicized on a global level, but it's important to implement it in the right direction, being completely aware of the legal as well as social limitations. That's all folks. Thanks a ton for carving out your precious time for reading our post.
