07 Dec The History of Building Families through the Surrogacy Process
Statistics show that over the last five years in the United States, over 5,000 children were born through the surrogacy process — a figure that overwhelms us with happiness.
At Same Love Surrogacy, our 25 years of cumulative experience with surrogacy and donor services is continuing to help shape history through our commitment to growing loving families through the surrogacy process.
Significant Early Milestones in the Surrogacy Process
While The Bible is rarely referenced in relation to surrogacy, it is true that The Book of Genesis provides a surrogacy story of its own, marking the first reference for our esteemed family-building process.
Like many couples, Sarah and Abraham could not conceive on their own, which led to Sarah turning to her assistant to carry the couple’s child. Without the medical technology we have now, the surrogacy process was achieved in the old-fashioned way, and the couple raised the child as their own.
Today, although the physical act of creating a child would typically be removed from the equation, this would be known as a traditional surrogacy process where the surrogate mother uses her egg, which is fertilized using sperm from the intended father or a donor.
Through the 1800s, there were many mentions of the surrogacy process, which often evoked questions about the ethics of becoming parents in the non-traditional sense.
Finally, groundbreaking science and the surrogacy process combined to make history.
The 1970s Bring Hope to Intended Parents Everywhere
Scientists around the world began making breakthroughs with egg retrieval processes, fertilization techniques, and embryo transfers to develop what is now known as the surrogacy process.
Some important surrogacy process milestones occurred over three years, including
- The first completed IVF embryo transfer deemed “ethical” was successful in 1975
- An uncompensated traditional surrogacy process was brokered by an attorney in 1976
- A child was conceived through IVF transfer and was born in 1978
The Surrogacy Process Expands in the 1980s and Things Become Complicated
The original compensated surrogacy agreement — valued at $10,000 — was arranged between intended parents and a traditional surrogate in 1980.
The surrogate’s eggs were used during the IVF procedure, which made her the child’s biological mother.
Upon the child’s birth, the surrogate refused to sign over her parental rights to “Baby M,” which began a two-year custody battle.
In 1986, the result of the custody case was reached in a historical ruling where the contractual agreement was deemed illegal. The father was awarded custody of the child, but the surrogate was granted visitation rights going forward.
This court-ordered decision pivoted the surrogacy process into a new direction called gestational surrogacy — where the surrogate is not biologically related to the baby — and helped develop stricter surrogacy laws throughout the country.
The Surrogacy Process Fast Forwards Thirty Years
In the over 30 years that have followed, the restrictions that were placed on surrogacy prompted legislators, attorneys, judges and courtroom rulings throughout the country to establish ways that intended parents could protect their parental rights in surrogacy.
Today, the advanced assisted reproductive technologies and gestational surrogacy options provided by Same Love Surrogacy allows all types of intended parents to raise their children through exceptional planning, matching programs within our extensive network of surrogates, and a legal commitment to ensuring our clients traverse the surrogacy process with no detail left to chance.
If you are considering the surrogacy process to build your family, contact us today to learn how we can ease your transition to parenthood.
