L'aborto nei contratti di maternità surrogata statunitensi

Abstract

Surrogate motherhood can happen by legal contract (in a minority of countries) or by informal agreement. In both cases a woman bears a child with the intention that it will be raised by the genetic father and his wife/partner. Only where surrogacy is configured as a contract, the birth mother is legally forced to relinquish her parental rights, even if during the pregnancy she has started instead to develop ties with the future baby. Clauses in the surrogacy contract also oblige her to submit to medical procedures decided by the «intended parents», including abortion/embryo reduction. Disagreements arise: in California apparently even more often than about the delivery of the baby to the intended parents, which is mandatory by law. The woman's personal right to choose is constrained by monetary sanctions. This article also debates the implication of similar contracts and clauses on the social consideration of a pregnant woman.