Option 5: Surrogacy and other artificial ways to conceive Over the last few decades, the world has

progressed very much. The developments have been made not only in the field of IT but medical science as well. Bio sciences have progressed very much over these decades and the subjects of genetic engineering and bio-medical engineering etc. have witnessed a new horizon. Along with this development have come some issues which are concerned with ethics. Among these issues are euthanasia, cloning, organ donation, sperm donation and organ donation etc. One of these issues, which has drawn the attention of global media in the recent years is the case of surrogate mothers. There has been a debate over what should be the legal status of surrogacy and what should be the moral status. In the following lines well try to analyze the case. Although the people who are up for surrogacy say that it provides a good opportunity to the mothers who have fertility issues or cant experience the pregnancy for any reason, to have their child. But it doesnt seem much valid to me because if a mother has been infertile, it is so because the nature has made her so. If a lady is to become a mother, there are other ways available as well. She can adopt a child from an orphanage, for example. Hence this argument doesnt make sense in the favor of the surrogacy and is invalid totally. At least this is what seems to me regarding this specific argument.

Now let us examine some other moral issues related with surrogacy. Surrogacy has been under severe criticism by several sections of the society in the recent past. One of the objections raised on surrogacy is that it exploits the deprived class of the society because those people who have stable financial conditions would never be a surrogate mother. Other issues involved are legal. For example, in many states and countries, government ensures that a maternity leave is sanctioned to pregnant women. Not only this, but other benefits are given as well in the name of maternity allowances. The issue with surrogacy is that if a woman is going to have a child via surrogacy, will she claim the maternity leave and allowances or the surrogate mother herself will receive these benefits? Surrogacy may create psychological issues for the child who is born through surrogacy. The child born through surrogacy may have the difficulty to decide that which of the two women, he should call her mother, if the surrogate mother isnt doing it for profession and is related to the child or the child knows her somehow or other. Also, the surrogate mother may face the moral issues if she doesnt reveal the society that she is doing it. The society may blame her for prostitution and thus a bad name may come to her. Therefore surrogacy may give someone very little benefit but the social, moral and psychological hazards of it are much more than the benefits and hence it is both morally and socially unacceptable to me on the basis of above mentioned reasons.

Similarly, a recent concept has been introduced in the world quite a few days ago which is called sperm donation. The method works by taking sperms from sperm donors, and inserting them into the womb of any woman who wishes to experience motherhood. This concept like surrogacy has received much criticism as well. In fact, it has been criticized more than the concept of surrogacy. The problem with this concept is that the child is likely to have some disabilities or abnormalities. But for the sake of discussion, let us assume that the child produced through this method is a normal one. Even if the child produced through this method is a normal one, the social hazards of this method is so much that the idea doesnt remain neutrally feasible for a well reputed person. The main problem with this issue is the fatherhood of the child produced through this method although most of clinics which perform the fertilization through sperm donations, keep the record of the sperm donors on the regular basis. Morally speaking, sperm donor is more or less equivalent to prostitution, according to me. At least it is the view maintained by many of the Eastern societies where the religion is the main stake holder of the society. Religion emphasized that the only legitimate way to produce a child is the intercourse between a man and his wife. Since sperm donation and consequent pregnancy violates this concept, it points that there is a big no from the religious point of

view and hence the same should be considered from the social and moral point of view since all of these are linked together. These days, some men tend to take ova from beautiful ova donors and prefer to go for in vitro fertilization. In vitro fertilization is a method where the sperm is taken from sperm donor (husband or some other donor), and ovum is taken from the ovum donor and both are fertilized in some specific liquid in a controlled environment in laboratory. Now this issue has two aspects. If a man and his wife go for in vitro fertilization since the woman can have some medical complications, the process seems somewhat legitimate and justifiable because neither the sperm nor the ovum is meeting with the counterpart of someone who you cant marry as per law or religion. On the other hand if a woman or man tends to go for in vitro fertilization from the counter part of a donor, with whom they have not been married, this may legally be alright but is religiously wrong and hence socially unacceptable as well. Along with this very argument, the arguments which have been given above in the case of surrogacy, under the legal discussion have much importance in this method as well. The issues of inheritance will apply in both of these cases as well. So, it is a big no for all these methods, morally, socially and religiously.

References
Couser, G. T. (2004). Vulnerable subjects: Ethics and life writing. Cornell University Press.

van Niekerk, A., & van Zyl, L. (1995). The ethics of surrogacy: women's reproductive labour. Journal of medical ethics, 21(6), 345-349.

Dunstan, G. R. (1986). In-vitro fertilization; the ethics. Human Reproduction,1(1), 41-44.