Legal constraints of using surrogacy

Abstract

Background and Purpose: Surrogacy is a new assisted reproductive technology requiring to be perceived based on the real experiences of surrogacy patients regarding its legal issues so that legislators are able to enact appropriate laws for such patients' safety. This study pursues the goal to examine the experiences of commissioning mothers and surrogates confronting legal issues. Methods: This paper is part of the findings of a larger study conducted over 20 months from October 2011 to June 2013 using the grounded theory approach to explain the process of becoming a mother in commissioning mothers. The experiences of mothers using gestational surrogacy have been analyzed through the conventional content analysis method and then reported in terms of the legal issues of surrogacy. Overall there have been 20 participants including 11 commissioning mothers and 4 surrogates. For incorporating the resources, 5 fertility clinic personnel have also been interviewed. Totally 25 unstructured in-depth interviews have eventually been performed. Data have been collected via purposive sampling method within Royan Institute, and then due to the inadequate number of samples, sampling continued in other surrogacy treatment centers. Results: Commissioning mothers and surrogates suffer a great amount of stress at the time of childbirth, and lack of legal support imposes plenty of problems on them. Participants' experiences revealed a common theme of "legal constraints" with three dimensions as "inefficiency of current laws", "receiving inadequate educational support services" and "stress and frustration". Conclusion: Results indicate disagreeable legal settings for surrogacy leading to a high level of stress imposed on the clients using these technologies. The treatment team should inform the families about the entire process ahead of them before they make their final decision so as to enable them to enter the process fully aware.

Process of becoming a mother for Iranian surrogacy‐commissioning mothers: A grounded theory study

“…Zandi et al . (2014) described the experiences of Iranian families who were using surrogacy, with respect to the legal conundrums that were encountered by them, and compared the Iranian laws that applied to this issue with the laws that have been established in other countries (Zandi et al ., ). In Iran, commissioning couples have to resort to illegal actions in order to evade the legal conundrums of using surrogacy services and to be able to obtain their child's birth certificate under their own name as genetic parents, which then puts a lot of financial and mental pressure on them and aggravates their feelings of insecurity about becoming a mother.…”

Security giving in surrogacy motherhood process as a caring model for commissioning mothers: A theory synthesis

“…'s () study, despite legally comparable conditions with Iran (surrogate is the legal mother), none of the Dutch families using gestational surrogacy experienced the legal problems regarding adaptation procedures of the children as their own (Dermout, Wiel, Heintz, Jansen, & Ankum, ), because the families had entered the process with full awareness and already passed the legal pathway toward adaptation. Whereas in Iran, legal insecurity is one of the major concerns of commissioning mothers, moreover lack of awareness in the families complicates the situation (Zandi et al ., ). Therefore, in order to give security, the families should enjoy legal and information support and a legal nurse should play his/her role as the person in charge in the area.…”

“…Therefore, in the SGSM model, management of the relationship between both parties is one of the important nursing roles and is considered as one of the dimensions of giving security for which, if needed, other treatment team members, including doctors and lawyers among others, can be used according to the type of the related problem. Despite the fact that many countries, including Thailand, India (since 2002) (Whittaker, ), and almost half of the states in the USA (Kisu, Banno, Mihara, Iida, & Yoshimura, ) have legally comparable conditions regarding surrogacy with the Islamic Republic of Iran (in which the surrogate is the legal mother), very few studies have examined the experiences of families concerning legal issues (Zandi, Vanaki, Shiva, Mohammadi, Bagheri‐Lankarani, & Karimi, ). In Dermout et al .…”