At the age of 19, Amanda Roman suffered a stroke that led to her being on various medications including blood thinners which ultimately resulted in a uterine ablation, rendering her incapable of experiencing menstruation cycles. In such scenarios, becoming biologically connected with their offspring would necessitate utilizing surrogates. As fate would have it, soon after getting married in 2019, Roman and her spouse commenced IVF treatments, preserving nine embryos that passed the genetic screening process. They then began a search for potential surrogate mothers through various channels such as social media groups dedicated to connecting intended parents with prospective gestational carriers.
Roman’s quest led her to Florida where she discovered that state laws were favorable towards gestational surrogacy, ensuring that the agreements reached are enforceable and binding; however, these requirements entail specific criteria for potential surrogate mothers such as not being on government financial assistance programs aimed at alleviating poverty. According to Roman’s interpretation of Florida legislation governing surrogacies, it aims “to ensure there is no human trafficking happening where people are low-income and being paid a significant amount or bribed into having someone else’s child.”
Last October saw the birth of her daughter, who joined the thousands (around 4000) other babies conceived via surrogacy every year. Intriguingly, it appears that the popularity for this process has extended beyond elite Hollywood circles as more people embrace its use in their family planning endeavors. The cost involved can be quite steep ranging from $100,00 to $200,00 inclusive of compensation payments, medical expenses and legal fees associated with surrogacy arrangements.
Gestational surrogate services were initially successful as early back as 1985; however, its popularity has grown tremendously in recent times due to a variety of factors such as increasing infertility rates among couples, the soaring cost-base associated with living arrangements during prime fertility age windows for women (most notably through high rent and house prices) as well as surges within same-sex couple cohorts choosing to explore gestational methods.
According to statistics compiled by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, in 2019 there were a total of 9154 embryo transplantation procedures employing compensated carriers compared with just over two thousand (2841) back in 2011. However, this figure dropped to around seven thousand eight hundred (7786) during the year 2020 as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic’s impact on global fertility clinics and medical centers operations worldwide.
Despite its growing popularity, there are still some areas where surrogacy is facing legal challenges or outright bans; for instance, Louisiana remains one such state in America that has explicitly banned compensated commercial gestational agreements between parties since the late 1980s. In contrast, Michigan recently overturned a decades-old ban on commercially arranged compensatory surrogacy arrangements and enacted safeguards to protect both intended parents as well as carrier mothers during their medical treatments journeys together throughout the gestation period.
In Europe, most countries have banned this practice; however, it seems that some members of European parliament want it criminalized in a more far-reaching manner by categorizing surrogacy under human trafficking offenses since there’s still considerable opposition from certain religious factions to commercial compensation for gestational carriers. Pope Francis recently added his voice against the practice stating “a child is always a gift and never the basis of a commercial contract.”
Despite this, Leah Potter (Program Director at Family Choice Surrogacy based in Indiana) highlights that some states such as Florida have been able to implement favorable legislation for surrogate mothers while also ensuring intended parents’ rights are protected. She further adds that there is an active community of doctors, agencies, counselors, therapists and attorneys working together across the state who ensure all parties involved in these arrangements receive fair treatment throughout their journeys towards parenthood through this method.
Regardless of where one stands on whether gestational surrogacies are ethical or moral practice issues at its core, it’s evident that this form of assisted reproduction has now gained wider societal acceptance globally among different populations seeking to create families regardless of sexual orientation status and biological capacities within heterosexual couples alike.
As technology advances rapidly with scientific research shedding further light on genetic predispositions towards infertility, it’s likely that the global market value for this form of fertilization support is only going up from its current estimation valued at approximately $14bn USD according to recent studies conducted by Global Market Insights.
Despite ongoing challenges around legal and regulatory frameworks in some areas worldwide, there seems little doubt that gestational surrogacy will continue growing as a popular option for couples seeking parenthood through this method over the coming years ahead.
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