ABSTRACT
Before the advent of the assisted reproductive technologies employed today, older forms of surrogacy were used. Th ere are biblical examples from Genesis (Chapter 30) in which Rachel, who is infertile, gives Bilhah, her servant (or slave) to Jacob as a concubine to serve as a surrogate. Bilhah gives birth to two sons whom Rachel names and considers her children. Th is is the earliest biblical example of what could be called surrogate mothers. As servants and concubines with no rights, these women had little power and seemed to have no control over their bodies or their reproductive labor, which could be used by their mistresses and the patriarchs for whom they served as surrogates. Th ey were used to conceive a child that was genetically related to the father. Th ese women, like U.S. slaves, were not recognized as the legal mothers of their children.
