Surrogate
The Surrogate Path To Parenthood
When a couple are eager to have children and ready to provide all the love and care in the world to them, it comes as a crushing blow to discover that one or both of them is unable to conceive or carry a child to full term. After the initial discovery, there is often a long road of investigation and weighing-up of the various options available to them. Usually, they choose between adopting a child or, ruling out the possibility of them being able to undergo in-vitro fertilisation treatments, they may consider a surrogate mother to carry their child to term.
In order to comply with South Africa’s new surrogacy laws that came into effect on 1 April 2010, couples wanting to undergo the surrogacy process need to prove that that they are unable to carry a child to full term, and that the condition is permanent and irreversible. It is also a provision that the reproductive cells (gametes) of both of the commissioning parents be used – except in the instance of one of the couple providing conclusive proof that he or she is physically unable to provide such gametes. All parties, the commissioning couple, the surrogate mother and her partner, must enter into a written agreement outlining the terms of their surrogacy arrangement, to be approved by the High Court of South Africa before the process can begin.
Prior to the new surrogacy laws, the process was fairly informal and unregulated, but unfortunately led to many cases of surrogate mothers being paid (often exorbitantly) for producing a couple’s child. With the new laws, surrogate mothers are not in any way ‘reimbursed’ for their part in the process and are only able to claim proven loss of income, medical and other surrogacy related expenses. As a result of this, only those with a genuine, compassionate desire to help a couple achieve parenthood are enlisted as surrogate mothers.
For more information on surrogate motherhood and surrogacy agreements in line with the new legislation, contact Adele van der Walt Attorneys for caring, thorough advice and assistance.
For more information on this subject, please give us a call at (SA) or e-mail us at susann@avdw.co.za
