Ethical Issues In Surrogacy

Ethics is a concept that finds itself complex to the highest degree. Combine ethics with religious beliefs and you will be presented with inherently different opinions on the true meaning of what is right, what is wrong, what is personal choice and what is human rights. There are many ethical issues that find themselves tangled between the longstanding, multifaceted beliefs held by religions of all kinds. One of the most influential and controversial is surrogacy.

Surrogacy is when a woman offers to carry a baby on behalf of someone else. Once the baby is born, the surrogate mother returns the baby to its intended parents (IVF Australia, 2017). The embryo can be from the intended parents or donors, however the Australian Surrogacy Act of 2010 states that “the surrogate has no genetic link to the child and her eggs cannot be used to conceive the child.” (Queensland Government, 2017). In various Christian and Jewish denominations, such as Catholicism and Orthodox Judaism, the use of surrogacy to have a child is highly condemned (Surrogate Mothers Inc. 2016).

Whilst there aren’t any Christian variants that openly encourage and advocate for surrogacy, there are differences to the extent that it is tolerated. The Roman Catholic Church highly condemns the use of surrogacy as it is of vital

Orthodox Judaism condemns surrogacy because it verges on being adultery, although the Torah does allow a man to have more than one wife. If a couple bypasses the beliefs of some Orthodox Jews, there are specific conditions that must be abided by so Jewish law is. This means the surrogate mother must be single and unrelated to the parents to ensure no incestual relations. Many Orthodox rabbis believe the surrogate mother is responsible for the child’s religion (Mazor Net, 2011). This results in significant issues where parents who are using a non-Jewish surrogate find that their child is not