Surrogacy involves a woman (the surrogate) agreeing to bear a child, and subsequently to surrender that child to be brought up by a person or persons other than herself.

Surrogacy may be useful where a woman is unable to bear a child, due to severe pelvic disease or she has had a hysterectomy or because she has medical problems (e.g. heart or kidney disease) and pregnancy may seriously threaten her life or health.

The under-mentioned definitions regarding surrogacy have been summarized from The Reproductive Revolution (Singer, P., and Wells, D. Oxford: Oxford University Press 1984).

The most common form of surrogacy is where a couple arrange for a surrogate to undertake artificial insemination using the semen of the male partner. This is called "partial surrogacy".

Alternatively, a surrogate may have a biological link with the child she bears by virtue of the fact that fertilization was achieved by means of IVF followed by embryo replacement. This is called "IVF and ER surrogacy". (For instance where a surrogate has blocked fallopian tubes but has no ovulation problems.)

A surrogate-born child may have no genetic link with the surrogate at all. In other words, the surrogate is merely offering her gestation function to an embryo. This is referred to as "fall surrogacy".

A more unlikely possibility, where the surrogate has no genetic link with the child, is where the commissioning parties also have no genetic link with the child - for instance, where an embryo is donated by anonymous gamete donors. This is referred to as "donate embryo surrogacy".

Surrogacy can also be classified according to whether or not money is a concern. Where payment is involved, depending on the sort of payment, and to whom it is made, one can envisage at least three different possibilities. The first possible situation arises where a woman agrees to be a surrogate, providing that the commissioning parties will compensate her for all expenses for the conception and birth of the child and any loss of earnings by the surrogate during the period of confinement. This is "surrogacy with reasonable compensation".

The second possibility is where a surrogate may receive payment besides that which represents a reasonable compensation. This is called "surrogacy for a fee".

The third possibility is where payment may be made to a party other than the surrogate. An agency may operate on a commercial basis, arranging surrogacy and charging both surrogates and commissioning parties to bring them together and for provision of counselling services. This is called "commercial surrogacies". (This is one of the reasons why the media often calls surrogacy "baby selling").

However, money is not necessarily an important part of surrogacy. For instance, a sister may bear a child for her infertile sister, and the whole transaction may involve no payment of money or other rewards. This is called "surrogacy in principle".

The above-mentioned techniques no doubt allows an infertile couple to have a child who would have the genetic compliment of the husband, if the husband's sperm is used to fertilize the ovum of the surrogate woman. But, this is where the problem arises - fertilizing the ovum of a woman by the sperm of a man other than her husband can be regarded as an adulterous union. Thus it would be illegal under Islamic Law. Now it may also happen that the sperm and the ovum of the married couple is fertilized in vitro and placed in the womb of the surrogate mother who would be paid for giving birth to the child who would, in that respect, bear the genetic compliment of the contracting couple. Here, it may be pointed out that Islam does permit Muslims to have their children breast-fed by other women. If that is done, then the child would be like the child of the wet-nurse. This means that if the wet-nurse has her own biological children then the child she breast-fed would not legally be permitted to marry any of her own biological children. But, it must be emphasised that this privilege can in no way serve as justification for the surrogate mother. No parallel can be drawn between the wet-nurse and the surrogate mother. The wet-nurse provides the basic nourishment to the already bom child, while the surrogate mother carries the "unformed" child to term and literally gives birth to it.

ISLAMIC VERDICT

Scholars of Islam have pronounced the following fatwa (Islamic verdict) regarding surrogacy:

It is illegal and immoral to introduce into a woman the sperm of any man other than her husband. The formation of the embryo outside the human body will only be permissible subject to certain strict conditions. It will be Haram (forbidden) to form the embryo by the fusion of a woman's ovum with the sperm of a man other than her husband. It is also not lawful to implant into a woman an embryo developed in a haram way.