Surrogate Mothering and the Meaning of Family

Surrogate mothering and contract pregnancy are terms that describe one of two arrangements. Either a woman agrees to be artificially inseminated with the sperm of a man in order to bear a child for him and his wife and is compensated for her services. Or eggs are harvested from one woman, fertilized in a petri dish by her husband’s sperm, and implanted in the womb of another woman, who brings the resulting fetus to term and is compensated for her services. How are we to understand such arrangements and the principles or values they reflect? For some commentators, the important