ABSTRACT
Surrogacy, often referred to as contracted motherhood or gestational motherhood, ordinarily comes into play when the female member of a married couple is infertile or, if fertile, unable or unwilling to carry a child to term. In cases of partial surrogacy, the surrogate mother agrees to be artificially inseminated with the sperm of a man who is not her husband; to carry the subsequent pregnancy to term for a fee or out of generosity; and to relinquish the resulting child to the man and his wife to rear. Most nonfeminist opponents of surrogacy base their arguments on either natural-law or Kantian considerations. Natural-law opponents of surrogacy view it as an attempt to defy the laws of nature. Among the legal remedies that nonfeminist bioethicists have suggested for surrogacy are the following: nonenforcement of surrogacy contracts, criminalization of commercial surrogacy, enforcement of surrogacy contracts, and consideration of surrogacy as a form of adoption.
