The Regulatory-Permitted Approach For Responsible Uses Of Commercial surrogacy: Who Cares About Surrogates In The Commercial Practice Of Gestational surrogacy?

Abstract

This paper reviewed and criticized the cruelty associated with the commercial practice of gestational surrogacy on surrogates as opposed to the conventional practice of surrogacy. The regulatory-permitted approach prevents surrogates from losing their autonomy to reasonably negotiate surrogacy contracts and prevent intended parents from depriving them of their autonomy. The prospective regulatory-permitted approach should first take into account the physician-patient relationship in a way that surrogates assume the status of a patient within the surrogacy process. This approach should also promote surrogates' autonomy for their entire lives to develop their capacity for self-determination regardless of monetary compensation. The regulatory approach should also require that the only women who serve as surrogates are those who comprehensively understand the exact processes involved using visual multimedia tools and that they are economically independent outside of the monetary compensation involved in the surrogacy. A commercial surrogacy committee should also be established to determine qualifications for surrogacy. This committee would review and certify whether surrogates can handle the complicated process of commercial surrogacy. They would also supervise the process of how intended parents and fertility clinics unconsciously and unfairly draft commercial surrogacy contracts. Furthermore, a surrogate's autonomy, which qualifies them for commercial surrogacy, should be judged on the basis of lifetime autonomy. In this way, the regulatory-permitted approach needs to be much more clearly articulated and refined by keeping a prudent balance between intended parents and surrogates. This could be achieved by creating a committee that takes into account the physician-patient relationship, the surrogate's motives of practical reasonableness, and regulates the unconscious and unfair forms of commercial surrogacy, the doctrine of visualized informed consent, and the lifetime concept of surrogates' autonomy. These efforts should specifically include how surrogates can utilize their surrogacy experience to improve their lives and how those experiences can develop into lifetime autonomy. Without these efforts, the regulatory-permitted approach will only continue to be designed for the wishes of intended parents.