Introduction
In
ancient times surrogacy cases were rarely spoken about and were never
documented. Traces and hints of surrogacy can be found in Mahabharata[1],
in relation to the birth of Balaram, the brother of Krishna[2]. The
earliest clear record of surrogacy can be found in the bible in which the story
of Abraham and Sarah[3]
mentions that Sarah had experienced infertility, and asked her handmaiden,
Hagar, to carry a child for her and Abraham[4].
Since biblical times, there have probably been many such surrogate pregnancies.
But it is not until the late 1970s that anything is recorded again[5].
In 1976, lawyer Noel Keane brokered the first legal agreement between a set of
intended parents and a traditional surrogate mother[6].
The surrogate mother did not receive compensation for this. Commercial
surrogacy was first recorded in 1980 when Elizabeth Kane received compensation
for surrogacy.[7]
The Basics of Surrogacy
Surrogacy
is the practice whereby
