Third party reproduction

From ArticleWorld

The term, third party reproduction, can refer to any number of reproductive practices where at least one aspect of a given pregnancy involves a person or persons whose role is limited to the pregnancy and who are not involved with raising the child. Advances in assisted reproductive technology have created a wide variety of possible reproductive and parental combinations that allow an infertile woman or couple to have a child.

Types

Third party reproduction can involve something as simple as sperm donation. In this case, the sperm donor becomes the relatively-uninvolved individual who is, in part, responsible for the attainment of a pregnancy but is often anonymous to the parents who eventually raise the child.

A woman can become the third party in a pregnancy in several ways. She can donate her eggs to a couple or woman who does not have viable eggs but who will carry the pregnancy by means of embryo transfer. In actuality, an infertile woman could use both a sperm donor and an egg donor so that, if she becomes pregnant with implanted embryos created by two third party donors, the child she gives birth to will carry none of her genetic material.

A woman can also choose to become a third party member in a pregnancy by becoming a gestational carrier. In effect, she donates the use of her uterus for the entire pregnancy but then gives over the parenting of the child to another individual or couple. A gestational carrier can also be the egg donor, with the sperm provided by the male member of the couple desiring a child. In these situations, the third party is sometimes referred to as a “surrogate mother”.

Alternatively, a gestational carrier can provide only the uterus, using the eggs, the sperm, or both, provided by the prospective parent(s) of the child. This situation is technically not surrogacy because, while the third party provides a gestational place for the infant, she is not genetically related to it.

Social and legal implications

Unfortunately, the technology of third party reproduction has outpaced the social and legal aspects of the process. In cases of surrogacy, the legal contract the surrogate signs, giving legal rights to the child she carries, does not always hold up under legal scrutiny. There is debate, too, over the social and ethical implications of older women, many years after their normal childbearing years, using third party reproduction and bearing genetically-unrelated children.

Others are opposed to homosexual or lesbian couples raising children they “conceived” using a third reproductive party. Hopefully, though, as complex reproductive situations like these become more common, the legal system and issues over social acceptance will sort themselves out.