Subscribe Log in

Log in

Remember me. [?]
Forgotten password
Not got an account?

Subscribe or register here

Toggle navigation
Student BMJ
Search
  • News & views
    • At a glance >>
    • Life
    • Briefings
    • Research explained
    • Views
    • People
  • Clinical
    • Practical skills
    • Clinical reviews
    • Ethics & law
    • Picture quizzes
    • Junior doctor survival kit
  • Specialties
    • Cardiology
    • Emergency medicine
    • Gastroenterology
    • General practice
    • General Surgery
    • Geriatric medicine
    • Neurology
    • Obstetrics & Gynaecology
    • Paediatrics
    • Psychiatry
    • Radiology
    • Respiratory
  • Careers
    • Career planning
    • A career in...
    • Electives
    • Foundation programme
    • Careers advice
  • Applying to medical school
    • At a glance >>
    • Application timeline
    • Considering medicine
    • Medical School Selector
    • Work experience
    • Personal statement
    • Entrance exams
    • Interviews
    • Plan B
    • Graduate entry medicine
    • Mediprep course
  • Subscribe

Surrogacy

Some mothers have much to give but so much to lose

By: Diana Jolliffe, Sarah Videlo

“I do hope you don’t mind,” my obstetric colleague told me, “but I have said that all the parents may attend the caesarean section.”

The patient was a healthy, happily married woman who was expecting twins. She enjoyed being pregnant and her own three children had been easy deliveries. Having completed her family she wanted to help childless couples and had considered becoming an egg donor; then she learnt about surrogacy. Her fourth baby was delivered at home as planned and was for another couple. This pregnancy was a surrogate one—hence the two extra people in theatre and my need for an urgent tutorial on surrogacy.

In a surrogacy arrangement a woman (the surrogate mother) agrees to bear a child for someone else (the intended parents) and hand over the baby at birth.1 The arrangement may have an altruistic or commercial basis. In the United Kingdom, altruistic surrogacy—where there

To read the rest of this article log in or subscribe to Student BMJ.

If you're not ready to subscribe yet you can access News & views for free or register with us to receive free updates on our latest content.

Log in Subscribe
  • Most viewed
  • What's new

Stay in touch

  • Register for email alerts

Contact us

  • Contact us
  • Advertisers and sponsors
  • Media

About Student BMJ

  • About us
  • Join the BMA
  • Subscribe
  • Write for Student BMJ
  • Review articles for Student BMJ
  • The BMJ
  • The Student BMJ scholarship
  • Request permissions
  • Sitemap

Terms and Conditions

  • Website T&Cs
  • Medical School Selector T&Cs
  • Privacy policy

© BMJ Publishing Group Limited 2018. All rights reserved.