ABSTRACT
Since the advances in reproductive medicine have made it possible to implant an egg of one woman into the uterus of another, the word “mother” can have several meanings. The mother of a child is no longer simply the woman who gave birth to it, the so-called biological mother. The woman from whom the egg came, who wants to become mother, the intended or genetic mother, is possibly a mother too. The intended mother needs a woman, who is willing to take over the gestation for her, the surrogate mother. In Germany, as in Slovenia, the legal mother is the biological mother, and surrogacy is prohibited. This chapter deals with the problems arising when intended couples, heterosexual or same-sex couples, using a surrogate mother in a country where surrogacy is permitted and where the intended parents are declared to be legal parents of the child, demand recognition of their parenthood coming back to their home country. Other questions are still open, e.g., the issue of motherhood in a lesbian partnership. Does the female partner become a co-mother when her partner gives birth to a child?
