This is a common and needless worry among intended parents unfamiliar with the gestational surrogacy process: “What if the surrogate decides she doesn’t want to give up the baby?” The reality is that any surrogacy arrangement that complies with the requisite and recommended screening by the relevant professionals — whose job it is to ensure that you are making the right choices — will be one built on trust, without such a concern.
Importantly, a central element of the gestational surrogacy process is the legal contract we draw up between the intended parents and the surrogate which guards against this occurring, and clearly and specifically addresses the legal rights of the intended parents concerning their child.More to the point, in gestational surrogacy (as opposed to “traditional” surrogacy) the baby that the surrogate is carrying is in no way genetically related to her — she is carrying a baby for another family using the egg (ovum) of the intended mother or an egg donor.Perhaps most critical is the psychological screening process for selecting our surrogates, which ensures that the women we work with fully understand the nature of gestational surrogacy, and exactly where their responsibilities begin and end.
Every intended parent should know and understand when moving forward with a gestational surrogate that she is not looking to have a child of her own; what is foremost on her mind and heart is helping others build a family of their own.
