2025/01/01 by Robert Klitzman
Medicine · Social Sciences · #Demographic Trends and Gender Preferences #Family Dynamics and Relationships #Reproductive Health and Technologies
paper · doi:10.1017/jme.2025.66
openalex publication_date 2025/01/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/05/21
As surrogacy grows, many states and countries are enacting or considering relevant regulations, while others oppose it. Ethical, legal and policy questions arise: how to balance the rights of various kinds of parents (e.g., heterosexual and same-sex couples and single individuals) against the rights and well-being of surrogates. Concerns include risks of exploitation, autonomy, benefits of enabling prospective parents to create loving families, and mitigating possible harms through regulations. Though a few instances of abuse have been reported in developing countries, these do not appear to have occurred in developed countries, where robust regulations exist. The limited data available on surrogates in general (i.e., including traditional and non-commercial surrogacy) do not suggest exploitation or trafficking. In 2021, New York State enacted robust regulations allowing commercial surrogacy. Subsequent competing bills have sought to loosen or enhance certain restrictions. These regulations may be a model for commercial surrogacy regulations elsewhere, but certain ethical, legal and policy questions remain (e.g., where to draw the line to prevent trafficking). Additional data and exploration of these challenges are crucial.