What is surrogacy?

A surrogacy is an agreement or arrangement where a lady carries baby for intended parents. However, the HFEA (Human Fertilization and Embryology Authority) does not promote surrogacy process. Therefore, surrogacy agencies recommend intended couples to get a legal advice before hiring a surrogate. It is good for sterile or LGBT couples to proceed in surrogacy through agencies as they can help them in establishing your family by hiring suitable proxy and works on legal procedure, as well. Normally, the gestational surrogacy is accepted by the state governments. Therefore, agencies suggest childless couples to have a baby in the same procedure.

In gestational surrogacy, the pregnancy results by transferring embryo to the uterus of a surrogate. The embryo is created by the in-vitro fertilization process. IVF is a therapy where the intended mother or donor egg is fertilized with the intended father or donor sperm and cultured in a laboratory for two to six days. Normally, the IVF cycle takes five to six weeks to achieve the desired results. Initially, the surrogate agencies screen the ladies who are willing to become proxy. They check medical history and follow strict guidelines to hire surrogates. Importance is given to the age, psychology and medical history of the ladies. Once they are done with these steps, meeting is arranged between sterile or LGBT couples and if they agree, an agreement is made defining the payment terms, legal rights of surrogate and intended couples, compensation, medical fee and other factors.

The proxy agreement plays a vital role in overall surrogacy process. It briefly outlines the rights of surrogate and intended parents.