Is Surrogacy Legal?
On 6th October 2020, Ghana’s President assented to the Registration of Births and Deaths Act, 2020 (Act 1027) effectively bringing the law into force. The law aims to, amongst others, provide for the registration of births, foetal deaths, and death in the country. What is not obvious from the long title of the Act is the law’s incursion into the area of surrogacy, and other assisted reproductive birth issues. This Q&A sets some of the key provisions contained in the Act dealing with surrogacy and other assisted reproductive birth issues.
With the passage of the Act, the law recognizes the right of an intended parent (i.e., a person who desires to be a parent through surrogacy or any other assisted reproductive arrangement) to engage the services of a surrogate for that purpose.
SURROGATE MOTHER AND INTENDED PARENT INFORMATION
Is The Baby Related To The Surrogate?
In gestational surrogacy, no. In traditional surrogacy, yes. The baby is biologically related to the two people who contribute the egg and sperm when the embryo is created, not whose uterus the baby is carried in. That means that if intended parents need the help of egg and/or sperm donors to create an embryo, the baby will be biologically related to the donor(s). If the egg and/or sperm come from the intended parents, then the baby is biologically related to them. Again, when it comes to genetics, what matters is the egg and sperm — the uterus doesn’t have anything to do with it.
How Long Does Surrogacy Take?
From the time a person begins the process to the moment the baby is born, it usually takes one to two years. There are a number of variables that will affect this: time spent waiting for a match with a surrogacy partner, however long it takes for the surrogate to become pregnant, and more. Here’s a good time breakdown of the average experience.
What Does the Surrogate’s Family Think About It All?
If married, a surrogate’s spouse must agree to the legal terms of the surrogacy contract, because they’ll need to confirm that they claim no parental rights and be aware of other important responsibilities and risks. A surrogate’s spouse and children must be emotionally on board with her decision, not only for those legal purposes, but because a surrogate’s family is her primary source of emotional and practical support. So, especially for women working with surrogacy professionals, the support and excitement of the whole family is actually required.
How Does the Surrogate Become Pregnant?
An embryo will be created in a fertility clinic lab using IVF and will later be transferred to the surrogate’s uterus by a fertility clinic doctor. For the surrogate, this experience of becoming pregnant will be entirely different from her previous pregnancies in a number of ways. She’ll take a carefully timed series of medications to prepare for that embryo transfer, be monitored more closely than she would with a “traditional” pregnancy, and more. In general, there’s more regulation and doctors involved in the process than people imagine.
GESTATIONAL SURROGACY PROGRAM
With gestational surrogacy, intended parents can use the mother’s egg or a donor egg as well as the father’s sperm or donor sperm. With gestational surrogacy, the carrier has no biological tie to the embryo that is transferred to her during the in vitro fertilization cycle.
Intended parents can use the following when it comes gestational surrogacy
- 1 own eggs and donor sperm
- 2 donor egg and own sperm
- 3 donor egg and donor sperm
The FDA require this test before retrieval, insemination and transfer as follows
- HIV-1 antibody and NAT (or MPX)
- HIV-2 antibody
- HIV group O antibody
- Hepatitis C antibody and NAT (or MPX)
- Hepatitis B surface antigen
- Hepatitis B core antibody (IgG and IgM)
- Serologic test for syphilis (TP or RPR)
- Neisseria gonorrhea and Chlamydia trachomatis NAT on urine or a swab
Additional testing for the sperm provider must include:
- HTLV-1 and HTLV-2
- Cytomegalovirus (CMV) (IgG and IgM)
In the case of an anonymous egg donor, the FDA testing that is required is done by the egg bank from which the anonymous donor egg was obtained. The egg donor will provide a Summary of Records and indicate the donor egg is FDA eligible for use.