Surrogacy is becoming extremely popular as a way for people to build their families and women to have a source of income. Many people have various reasons for their opposition to it whether it be by comparing it to prostitution or disagreeing with how military wives take advantage of the Tricare insurance. Lorraine Ali states in her article “The Curious Lives of Surrogates” that one of the more popular reasons to oppose surrogacy is that it contradicts, “what we’ve always thought of as an unbreakable bond between mother and child.” However, a woman’s inability to conceive her own children does not determine the absence of a mother to child bond.
The mother to child bond has been interpreted to be instinctive to all mothers. Meira Weiss quotes
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a midwife in her publication “Conditions of Mothering: The Bio–Politics of Falling in Love with Your Child” that it is a mutual feeling that the child and mother develop upon seeing each other for the first time and recognizing their relations. Weiss also goes on to state that , according to “Darwin’s conviction,” the maternal instincts that women possess leads them to express “greater tenderness and less selfishness” towards their children. This definition of the bond between a mother and child has conditioned people to believe that women are more suitable caretakers of children than men are, thus designating women as caretakers by nature. As a result, men have used this claim as an excuse to confine women to their households for centuries (Weiss). Also, in some societies, women who don't feel as attached as they should to their children are “medically constituted” of having “diseases of nonattachment” and are mercilessly rejected (Weiss). The traditional definition of the motherly bond indirectly designates the woman as the caretaker of the children, whereas, other people believe that the mother–child bond is a result of “love at first sight.” Mothers are expected to fall in love with their child instantly and then the “binding necessarily follows” if the mother accepts her love unquestionably (Weiss). By definition, this implies that a mother has no other option and her emotions towards are involuntary. Unfortunately, “love at first sight” isn’t always the case when mothers are introduced to their newborns. Weiss makes in known in her article that there has been a problem of couples abandoning their babies in the hospitals of the country of Israel if they show any visual sign of physical or mental impairedness. When people are given their baby for the first time, they to see two arms, two legs, two eyes, and ten fingers and toes– the basic anatomy of a human being. The babies are abandoned because they failed to meet those unspoken, but deeply ingrained, expectations. One would assume that a child’s appearance wouldn’t affect the love a parental figure possesses, but Sultan Tarlaci states in “The Brain in Love: Has Neuroscience Stolen the Secret of Love?” that about 30% of people are affected by whether or not someone’s face has a “good symmetrical” appearance when determining their love for them (745). So, if something is off about the baby, it will be noticed and could possibly be the deciding factor of its potential abandonment. Defining the bind a mother and child possess as “love at first sight” implies it is an inevitable phenomenon, however, some people believe that the “ever so sacred” bond develops when a mother decides for herself to love and raise the child. It is when a mother chooses to love her child that people believe the bond between the two begins to grow.
By choosing to lover her child, the mother acknowledges that she doesn’t feel as if she is obligated to do so because she wants to love him or her and is prepared for the challenges that await her. Thoma Oord writes in his article “The Love Racket: Defining Love and Agape for the Love–and–Science Research Program” that the definition of love refers to the “promotion of well being of all others in an enduring, intense, effective, and pure manner” meaning that when a person loves someone, they will try to do whatever they can to their beloved’s benefit (922). The child is benefited in many ways when the mother chooses to love him or her, for example, the child’s anxiety levels and sense of fear are lowered because they have the security of the bond they possess with their mother (Tarlaci 745). In his article, “Unmasking the Neurology of Love,” Robert Weiss explains that love is a “goal-orientated motivation state rather than a specific emotion” which arises the possibility of a mother “falling out of love” with her child if neither feelings or goals are present. Tarlaci observed an experiment conducted by A. Bartels and S. Zeki in which they compared the brain activity of both a mother looking at a picture of her child to a lover looking at a picture of their beloved. In the experiment it was discovered that “just about the same regions of the brain showed activity in the same two groups except for one” the PACG, which has been confirmed to be “specific to a mother’s love” (Tarlaci 747). So the chances of a mother falling out of love with her child are there, but are different from that of a lover due to the areas of the brain involved. Therefore, explaining the bond between a mother and child as something that forms when a mother chooses to love him or her implies a greater sense of willingness and
preparedness. The most fitting definition of what the mother to child bond is is when a mother chooses to lover her child, not because she is obligated to, but because she wants to. As a result, a healthy relationship forms because the child will know that their love wasn’t by design, but chosen. In conclusion, a woman’s inability to conceive to her own children does not hinder her ability to form a relationship with her child that she has thanks to a surrogate.
Indications have shown that the infant’s temperament holds significance in affecting maternal perception which is influenced by maternal characteristic, thereby, leading to the outcome of attachment (Pauli-Pott, Mertesacker, Bade, Haverkock, Beckmann, 2003). Through the c...
The mother-infant bond is the familiarity and attachment a mother forms with her offspring. These helpless babies are reliant on their mother’s nurture for survival. This dependence reaches farther than a physiological need. Infants rely on their mothers for a wide variety of demands. The mother-infant bond is critical to maximizing the fitness of each individual, as well as the growth of the species.
New means of reproducing children have the tendency to attract strong opposition, and this certainly true of surrogate mothering. A surrogate mother is woman who takes on the responsibility of pregnancy for another woman. The surrogate mother is, then, inseminated using a man’s sperm. At the end of the pregnancy, the surrogate mother gives the infant to the woman who requested her services. Some claim this practice is immoral.
Many Australians are turning to surrogacy as their last resort to have a child today. It is a process that has become more recognised popularly used over the years. Surrogacy is an arrangement for a woman to carry and deliver a child for another couple or individual. When the child is born, the birth mother permanently gives up the child to the intended parents. There are many legal issues surrounding surrogacy. Laws regarding this controversial process differ across Australia, and have changed dramatically overtime in Queensland. In this seminar, I will be analysing the issues involved with surrogacy, as well as evaluating and critiquing the new legislation that has been implemented in Queensland, that sets out the laws of surrogacy in Queensland.
W. S. Ross once said “The hand that rocks the cradle is the hand that rules the world.” As simple as this quip may sound, its complex implications are amplified through the life of every person born since the beginning of humanity. What attribute makes a mother such an extraordinary influence over her young? One such attribute is the ability to nurture. Beyond the normal challenges of cooking, cleaning, schooling, singing, feeding, and changing is the motivation by which such sacrifices are made possible. One cannot raise a child without mutual respect. Emotion and anxiety must drive her instincts. Her ability to foster is only heightened by minute personal imperfections and overwhelming responsibility that lead to a lack of confidence. Yet the prevailing characteristic that separates a ‘birth giver’ from a ‘mother’ is the unconditional, undying, and at times underestimated love for her child. To be a mother in the purest sense, she must embrace this notion of nurture.
Commercial surrogacy respects the feminist theory as it allows women to be heard and considers their feelings and relationships. Commercial surrogacy overcomes oppression by returning power to surrogates, defeating the patriarchal society and providing autonomy. Commercial surrogacy also tackles the issue of potentially exploiting women by protecting surrogates and, addressing the risks of surrogacy. There are many ethical issues surrounding women and the feminist theory can be a powerful tool in determining moral
Harry Frederick Harlow, an American Psychologist proposed a mother’s love was essential for healthy childhood development. (Cherry 2014) To prove this, Harlow carried out a series of controversial experiments in the 1950s titled “The Wire Mother Experiment” (also known as contact comfort) this experiment involved depriving Infant rhesus macaques (a breed of monkeys) of their mothers love and substituting their biological mothers with “manufactured mothers”. With this experimental method he intended to quantify and measure love and affection. (Vicedo N.D)
The attachment style that a child endures with their mother initially begins before the child is even born. In the mother’s womb, the infant becomes aware of their mother and father’s voices, where they begin to develop a bond with them and feel nurtured and comforted by the things they hear their parents sing and speak to them. According to Bowlby, the development of attachment takes place in four different phases and are reinforced as they grow older from the Preattachment (birth to age 6 weeks), attachment-in-the-making (age 6 weeks to 8 months), clear cut attachment (between 8 months to 1 ½ years of age) and the reciprocal relationship (from 1 ½ or 2 and on). As the child grows older, then begin to understand their parent’s feelings and motives and are able to organize their efforts and reciprocate the same i...
Commercial surrogacy commodifies children because by paying the surrogate mother to give up her child, they treat the child as an object of exchange or commodity that can be bought and sold. As any business transaction, the parents give money for the exchange of an object, the child. The parents get their desired child and the mother gets the money, but what about what thee child think about this event? The parents and surrogate mother’s action were done with self-interest. It could be argued that they wanted the best for the child. However, the first priority in the intentional procreation of the child was not the welfare of the child but rather to give it up to the parents in exchange of money. Additionally, women’s labor is commodified because the surrogate mother treats her parental rights as it was a property right not as a trust. In other words, the decisions taken concerning the child are not done primarily for the benefit of the child. The act of the mother relenting her parental rights is done for a monetary price. She disposes of her parental rights, which are to be managed for the welfare of the owner, as if they were property right, which are to be handled for personal
Commercial surrogacy is a controversial topic that is being discussed all over the world between individuals and government. Both of these groups have examined the ethics of commercial surrogacy, one of the main issues they have the money being used for a child’s birth. Due to the fact that not a lot of people in the world agree on this methods, many countries have banded commercial surrogacy. Most of the United States and United Kingdom have banned commercial surrogacy.
Arguments against commercial surrogacy typically revolve around the idea that surrogacy is a form of child-selling. Critics believe that commercial surrogacy violates both women’s and children’s rights. In addition, by making surrogacy contracts legally enforceable, courts will follow the contract rather than choose what is best for the child. However, in her article “Surrogate Mothering: Exploring Empowerment” Laura Pudry is not convinced by these arguments.
Supporters of the practice contend that these arguments provide good reasons for continuing the practice. Opponents of surrogacy acknowledge many of the claims made by supporters (e.g. they do not deny that it provides great economic incentive and benefits to women in India). Despite the advantages, they argue that the practice is not ethical and should be discontinued, or at least regulated more appropriately. One way that this might be done is to point out that surrogacy itself is not a morally reprehensible practice, but that they way it is being carried out in India is morally unjustifiable (e.g. it prays on the disadvantage of the poor, etc.). I will provide arguments for that position in a later paper.
Parenting is an essential aspect of our evolutionary heritage. Maternal nurturing of the young mammal is both instinctual and vital for the young to survive. Humans have a long infancy. This gives both time and scope for the parents to form a loving bond with the child. These mutual relationships of love and affection that develop transcend any biological purpose and constitute the very stuff of our epics and human legends.
Sweet and noble in human nature. Between a mother and a child, trust and love exist. At times
1 RIGHT - Surrogate motherhood is a right entitled to those who are ready and able to take on the responsibility of parenthood. Surrogate mothers fills a fundamental human longing. Procreation is a primitive instinct, and to many people it is devastating not to be able to become parents Surrogate motherhood is a solution to this age-old problem. Even in the bible, Abraham and Sarah resorted to a "surrogate mother" that produced their son Ishmael.