Mohammed 1 Hannah Mohammed Sue Briggs English 2010 11:30 May 1, 2014 Little Miracles Big Decisions The

e hospital is a dreaded place for many people, except couples awaiting a brand new family member into their life. Then it is a place of joy, and happiness. There is no denying when anyone sees a newborn baby, a smile forms across their face. Babies are little miracles received in life that bring families together. So what happens, when that couple isnt able to have their own little miracle? Do they have options or do they go through life wondering what could have been? Unfortunately those are questions many people are facing every day. In the world that is today, technology seems to be at the best it will ever be. Though it is constantly developing, we are able to do things we would have never dreamed of even just five years ago. Including having children without ever getting pregnant. Biological or not, the possibilities seem to be endless. But how does one know what choice to make and what to decide? Its not a little decision, its one that will affect their life forever. This life altering decision rest on many peoples shoulders constantly. The reaction for most people is to turn to adoption rather than having a surrogate mother. Adoption is proven to be the choice many people make and follow through with. The authors of the Genetic and Gestational Surrogacy: an Overview state adoption will help the poor children in terms of a family, proper food, shelter, education etc (Gupta, Kumar, Mondal, and Verma 191). With that said some will argue it is better to take in a child that is already here, rather than

Mohammed 2 go through a grueling process to have a biological child. There is no medical procedures to go through, and the process is a lot simpler when compared to having a surrogate mother. The biggest factor when faced with this decision is money. Many people are not in a situation to spend thousands of dollars to have a child. The New York Times author, Anemona Hartocollis says the average cost of going through a surrogate process is $75,000 to $120,000 with medical, legal and agency fees (Hartocollis 3). It is argued that adoption is the easier and best choice to make when deciding how to bring a child into a family. Yet it is proven in the academic journal; Journal of Family Issues that when people are looking to adopt they prefer a child who shares similar traits with them so they may better resemble a biologically formed family (Ishizawa, and Kubo 645). If getting as close as possible to a biological family is the goal in the adoption process, why not just have a real biological child with surrogacy? This is a hard topic to discuss because many peoples views are so different and it really comes down to their own core values and beliefs. After hard thought and research, I would have to disagree that adoption is the best decision for people needing to decide between the two choices. Having a child is not just about a random life coming into a family. For as long as we have been on this earth the process of having a child is sacred, personal, and emotional. It is in the best interest of anyone to reenact those feelings, if doing so on their own is not possible. Adoption is full of emotion but not the same type. Feeling the baby kick, or being able to see the babies heartbeat is something that anyone looks forward too. With a surrogate going through those special moments while being pregnant, those emotions are made possible. Taking away the simple things when trying to have a child can really take a lot of the joy out of the experience. Having a child, in any form, is emotionally and physically exhausted, there are many ups and downs. It has many worries and stresses, but the payoff makes it all worth it. Having a

Mohammed 3 biological child is one of the greatest moments anyone can have. Why not go through the same stresses and worries and have the payoff be the same as if the child was conceived naturally? Surrogacy is expensive, and medical procedures are necessary. But in the end the child that is brought in to the world is biological to the parents. They are able to look at their child and see themselves and see what they were able to make together, nothing can beat that feeling. I do not think surrogacy needs to be as scary and expensive as it is made out to be. I think there are many solutions to this problem. I propose, as an alternative solution, there is one big surrogate agency that is everywhere. Then, there is not rivalry. Businesses are not needing to look at their opponents and change pricing, or changing their procedures to be better than their competition. I think
Reviews, like above, of surrogacy agencies will no longer be necessary.

that making money,

and having the best business is too big of a factor in the industry right now. The companies are looking at how to make a buck, rather than running a business that is going to bring so much happiness into many peoples lives. The concept of their company is lost so easily. One website says with more than 16 years of experience and well over 500 births, Circle Surrogacy is one of the oldest and largest surrogate agencies (Circle Surrogacy). They are trying to sell themselves as easily and quickly as possible. David Sarnoff once said, Though competition brings out the best in products, it brings out the worst in people. It needs to be all about the families that will

Mohammed 4 be created. With the focus being back on making the dreams of a biological family come to life, cost can be cut, and surrogacy will be more available to many people. Within this worldwide agency, it will have an all-inclusive package. Included will be all the medical cost, surrogacy mother cost, legal cost, and social-work cost. It will be like when you buy a combo meal, you get all the goodies for a cheaper price. Anytime when someone wants to have their own biological child, there will be a way for them to figure it out, no matter their situation, or how much money they have to do it. The medical cost will be worked out with the local hospital, it will of course be set into contract so that it can never be argued or unfair in any way for every person who is there with a surrogate. No one will get better treatment than someone else. Payment methods will be different depending on the different money situations everyone has. But no one will be turned away because they cannot afford it, everyone will be able to have something worked out for them. Because in the end, giving them a child of their own is the goal, not making money.
In vitro, put simply.

Medical cost will also include all the procedures that need to happen in order for the pregnancy to even take place. Having the mothers eggs retrieved, having the male undergo a testicular sperm extraction, and in vitro (placing the fertilized egg in the surrogate). The agency will have nurses and doctors that work for them, so the cost of all the medical procedures will be cut tremendously. All checkups and the in vitro process will happen in the offices by medically trained professionals that are under employment of the agency.

Mohammed 5 The surrogate mothers will all be chosen the same way they are now in many agencies. Circle Surrogacy, an agency in business today, has their surrogates go
Contract sample.

through interviews and background checks. The same will be done in this new agency, many different approaches of how to choose surrogates will be taken from the bigger agencies to get the best results. To continue the requirements of the surrogates they will be required to have had a child at least once on their own already. Their pregnancies will be looked at to see if they were healthy and without any added stresses. The future parents will be able to meet the surrogate the
Example of what parts of the contract may look like.

agency thinks they would be best with, and they will have final word on whether they are okay with the surrogate carrying their baby or not. The surrogates mother will all sign the same
Example of what could possibly be found at the end of the contracts.

contracts. The contracts will cover everything from what they will have to pay for on their own to what is paid for them. The surrogate mother could definitely be a friend or relative of the future parents. If they match the medical criteria and are okay with all the contracts they will be signing, they will be okay to be the surrogate. The price will probably be cheaper if the surrogate is close to the future parents because they are volunteering out of the goodness of their heart to have their child, not to get money. A lawyer will work with the agency to make sure the contracts are legal and can be upheld. There is a lot of legal and social work involved in surrogate cases. It varies from state to state. So the agency will vary depending on the laws in that state. In Utah the laws are stated in

Mohammed 6 Part 8 of the Uniform Parentage Act of 2002, this acts says, the surrogate mother has legal custody of the child even though it is not her biological child. So in Utah the lawyers and social workers will work together to get adoption papers set into place and work out what would happen if the surrogate decided to not be a surrogate anymore. There will always be a legal Plan B, if anything were to go wrong in the whole process. Once all the necessary steps and procedures are done to make this company work in all locations, worldwide. Its going to take a lot of man power to keep it up and running smoothly. It will need to be a company people love and trust. No one will be able to have a bad experience to risk all the good that the agency plans on doing for people who are not able to bare their own children throughout the world. The employees are going to need to love their job, to assure that they will be paid a good amount, and will have good benefits. The leaders of the company will be easy to work with, and good leaders. Also, everyone working for the agency are going to be changing peoples lives, there is no better reward than that. This wont be an easy task to achieve but if many are able to put aside all their opinions and selfishness, they will see its for the good and better. It will make it possible so that surrogacy will be a more thought about option in anyones situation. Creating an agency where everything is all included in the process and there are no other options, will open the door of opportunity for so many that are looking to have a child of their own. It will make it a lot cheaper and everything will always be done and written out for the future parents. They will not have to worry about finding an agency that isnt going to just take

Mohammed 7 them for their money, worry about if their surrogate is capable or not, worry about the legal and social work aspects of surrogacy. Everything will be done for them, with a price that works for them. Creating an agency that does this for people wanting their own biological child, will make surrogacy a less scary word than it is now. It will be more of a possibility than just a dream. If people were able to put their focus on helping others, and working together, then people would be able to have a happy ending more often.

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Works Cited CircleSurrogacy. Circle Surrogacy, 2014. Web. 08 Apr. 2014 Hartocollis, Anemona. "And Surrogacy Makes 3." The New York Times. The New York Times, 19 Feb. 2014. Web. 08 Apr. 2014. <http://www.nytimes.com/2014/02/20/fashion/InNew-York-Some-Couples-Push-for-Legalization-of-CompensatedSurrogacy.html?_r=0>. Ishizawa, Hiromi1, and Kazuyo2 Kubo. "Factors Affecting Adoption Decisions: Child And Parental Characteristics." Journal Of Family Issues 35.5 (2014): 627-653. Education Full Text (H.W. Wilson). Web. 8 Apr. 201 "KidSpirit Online | Tackling Life's Big Ideas Together." KidSpirit Online Site Wide Activity RSS. N.p., n.d. Web. 27 Apr. 2014. <http://kidspiritonline.com/2009/09/does-competitionbring-out-the-best-in-us/>. MONDAL, Sambhu Charan, et al. "Genetic And Gestational Surrogacy: An Overview." Walailak Journal Of Science & Technology 9.3 (2012): 189-193. Academic Search Premier. Web. 8 Apr. 2014. "Parentage Act Summary." Parentage Act Summary. N.p., n.d. Web. 27 Apr. 2014. <http://www.uniformlaws.org/ActSummary.aspx?title=Parentage+Act>.

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