Surrogate Mothers

4 Pages 997 Words

Surrogate Mothers

According to Elaine Landau in the book “ Surrogate Mothers” “A Surrogate mother is a woman who conceives, carries, and gives birth to a baby for another person.” (Landau 9). 750 babies have been born through surrogacy at the center for surrogate mothers (“Frequently asked questions” 1). Many people do not know a lot about surrogate motherhood, so hey are afraid of it. Many women are insecure and they fear titles on the National Inquirer such as “ Father falls in love with surrogate mother!” (Frank 140). Although many women fear the idea of surrogacy, more woman are contemplating the issue because of the increased knowledge of the process and the additional support given during the process of being a surrogate mother.
The increased knowledge of the process sometimes does not put women who know about the “Baby M” case minds’ at ease. Basically, an infertile couple, the Sterns, went to a lawyer and said they would like to have a baby through a Surrogate mother. The lawyer located a lady who wanted to be a surrogate mother, Mary-Beth Whitehead. The Sterns, Mar-Beth Whitehead, and her husband, Richard Whitehead, met for lunch and a contract was drawn up. Mary-Beth Whitehead after many tries finally conceived and carried the baby. Over the time of her pregnancy, she felt like the Sterns were truing to control her life because of the fact that the Sterns would tell her what they thought was best for her during the pregnancy. Nine months later a baby girl was born and it was then that the Whiteheads realized they made a huge mistake. Mr. And Mrs. Whitehead told the Sterns they did not want to give up the baby and they were going to keep her. The Sterns did not like that and took the Whiteheads to court. After many emotional months of court trials and tribulations “Baby M” was awarded to the Sterns and all of Mrs. Whiteheads parental rights were taken away. Mrs. Whitehead later appealed the low...