Abstract
After centuries of silence, modern man again harkens the voice of Sa-ah. With the decline in the number of children available for adoption and the apparent rise in infertility in this country over the past three decades, individuals unable to bear children are seeking alternative methods for becoming parents. Surrogate motherhood is one solution to the age old problem of childless families. A surrogate mother is a woman, married or unmarried, who agrees to have a child for a person who is incapable of giving birth. While the more common utilization of a surrogate occurs in situations where the wife in a married couple is unable to have a child, it may also occur where an unmarried male seeks to become a father. The surrogate contracts to conceive the child of the husband or single male by means of artificial insemination in return for expenses and, usually, a fee. The surrogate also agrees that at the child's birth she will terminate her rights to the child and give custody to the biological father. If the contract involves a couple, the wife then adopts her husband's child.
Recommended Citation
Margaret D. Townsend,
Surrogate Mother Agreements: Contemporary Legal Aspects of a Biblical Notion,
16
U. Rich. L. Rev.
467
(1982).
Available at:
https://scholarship.richmond.edu/lawreview/vol16/iss2/10