GRSJ224/Surrogacy in Canada
As of 2004, the Assisted Human Reproduction Act (AHRC) passes surrogacy to be legal in Canada but strictly enforced at a federal level. Surrogate mothers may be reimbursed for approved expenses but any other payments is considered illegal. Although surrogacy may be seen as alienation of women's bodies and reproductive potential and performance through a patriarchal lens, but passing of this act also grants a woman's right to self-determination over her own body.
What is Surrogacy?
Surrogacy is an "process of giving birth as a surrogate mother or of arranging such a birth"[1] where a woman agrees to engage in an agreement to carry or deliver pregnancy for another person or couple. The surrogacy process comes in two forms: traditional surrogacy, the surrogate mother provides the eggs for fertilization, and gestational surrogacy, the surrogate mother goes through vitro fertilization[2] with another woman's egg. The surrogacy agreement will clearly outline whether the surrogacy is commercial, the intended parents agree to pay for all medical expenses, or altruistic, the surrogate has a close relation with the intended parents and no monetary values is involved in the transaction.
Why does Surrogacy Occur?
Surrogacy opens up the opportunity for couples or women who are unable to conceive an embryo to have a child. Some women are born with an abnormal uterus that could cause unexplained pregnancy miscarriages to occur more frequently [3] or a health condition that does not permit pregnancy to happen. As for the men faced with problems of infertility caused by abnormal sperm production or function due to undescended testicles, genetic defects, or health problems such as diabetes or infections such as chlamydia[4], gonorrhea[5], mumps[6], or HIV [7], surrogacy permits families faced with such issues to have a child genetically connected to at least one partner in the relationship.
An estimated of 15% of the couples in the world suffer from infertility[8], and in Canada, the infertility rate is hovering around 11.5% to 15.7%, meaning almost one in six couples[9] fail to get pregnant after multiple attempts in unprotected sex. Doe surrogacy could be such a big controversial topic anywhere in the world, Canada having legal surrogacy law could be beneficial especially in regions where the population growth rate is low in respective to the size of the territory. Whereby infertility rate is expected to increase in the long run due to raising environmental health concerns, surrogacy can encourage population growth, even the slightest increase would benefit Canada, being such a labor intensive country.
Concerns Regarding Surrogacy
Legal Issues
By law, every children's legal mother has to be the woman who gave birth to the child, but according to the surrogacy law in Canada, intended parents can quickly become the baby's legal parents without having to go through the long post-birth adoption process where some of the countries with stricter surrogacy law have to undergo. The baby born through surrogacy in Canada is automatically grant a Canadian citizenship, problems could arise between individuals who desperately wish to become a Canadian because of the high comfortable living and good heath care system Canada has in place by abusing the surrogacy law in order for themselves to obtain a Canadian citizenship. Under the radar commercial surrogacy illegalities would become more common in Canada as a result of those people who cannot find surrogate mother in their country.
Ethical Issues
Surrogacy raises a controversial topic as to what extent the human rights law permits the surrogate mother to make such a decision over their surrogate baby simply through a contract with the intended parents especially in cases where there are large social differences between the two parties. Is surrogacy not challenging our human definition of life on the topic of motherhood? Is certainly not fair for the surrogate child who does not even have the ability to have say in the contract.
Surrogate Mother's rights
Accountability Issues
A surrogacy case in 2011 was reported in Canada that a surrogate mother carrying a pair of twins was abandoned 27 weeks into her pregnancy by the intended parents from Britain, when the couple has declared their marriage had ended and would not be coming for the babies [10]. The fact that the surrogacy process was traditional, meaning the babies are genetically connected to the mother, just makes the case more complicated. As the Assisted Human Reproduction Act (AHRC) states that there will be no licensed fertility doctors in Canada, surrogate mothers will need to largely dependent on lawyers to ensure they are well protected by the surrogacy regulations. In this case, the surrogate mother did not have a lawyer, so she was left with no choice in the end but put the twins up for adoption as the she did not think she could be able to handle two at once by herself. This case acts as a warming to all surrogate mothers in Canada to protect themselves with the law, as the relationship between the intended parents and the surrogate mother began solely based on trust in most cases.
Social Benefits to legalizing Surrogacy
After Canada has become the fourth country outside of Europe to legalize same-sex marriage under the Civil Marriage Act, one of the biggest social benefit that comes with legalizing surrogacy is that homosexual couples in Canada is now opened with an opportunity to have their own baby. While we still have a long way to go to achieve the end goal of viewing LGBT relationships and families as societal norms, surrogacy encourages new identities with family structures, which eventually will further lead to more acceptance of alternative family forms.
From the Prospective of Reproductive Rights
From the perspective of reproductive rights, surrogacy permits the right for Canadian women to freely make decisions concerning their own reproductive life and body without suffering through any form of exploitation as the surrogacy process is heavily protected under the Canadian law. With Canada having many freedoms acts including the freedom of speech, choice, and religion, Canadian women should also have the freedom to be able to choose what they wish to do with their own body, as long as consent is formed and provided between both parties under no monetary assumptions.
Reference
- ↑ English Oxford Living Dictionary. Oxford University.
- ↑ John, Jacobson, D. (January 14, 2018). In vitro fertilization (IVF).
- ↑ What is Surrogacy? The "Sensible" Surrogacy Guide Explains. (n.d.).
- ↑ English Oxford Living Dictionary. Oxford University.
- ↑ English Oxford Living Dictionary. Oxford University.
- ↑ English Oxford Living Dictionary. Oxford University.
- ↑ "Infertility". Mayo Clinic. March 08, 2018.
- ↑ Ashok Agarwal, Aditi Mulgund, Alaa Hamada, & Michelle Renee Chyatte. (2015, April 26). "A unique view on male infertility around the globe."
- ↑ "Infertility: More common than you may think". Body and Health.
- ↑ Vukets, C. (September 10, 2011). "Surrogate mother's nightmare".