Gestational and Traditional Surrogacies

With all the drama and ethical issues surrounding surrogacy, I definitely had to do some research to determine my position on it. But first, the two issues at hand.
Baby "M" case: The interesting thing about this that struck me was how a traditional surrogacy brings such a stronger case to how the genetic mother might be seen to have legal rights. In this instance, Mary Beth was the traditional surrogate for the Stern family, and signed a contract with them to 'be inseminated with Mr. Stern's sperm, to carry the baby, and the give the baby up.' Because this was only 4 years after the first paid traditional surrogate case, the contract situation was still in the early stages of having a set foundation, thus was shaky compared to the contracts used today. Likewise, Mary Beth was easily written off as psychologically 'ok' to commit to this surrogacy, even though after the fact, her mindset seemed quite unfit to have entered into the situation with the Stern family.
Basically, this was one whole tug of war story, intermittently spattered with drastic actions taken on both sides. Mary Beth takes the child, the Sterns get Judge Sorkow to issue an ex parte order and seize the baby from Mary Beth, Mary Beth threatens the Sterns over the phone, takes baby with husband and flee, I was at the library, literally laughing out loud when I read more and more of the story.
I believe that the Sterns were in the right in this situation, even though Mary Beth would argue that she was misinformed about the procedure, not knowing whose egg and sperm were being used. This is pure idiocy. Pregnancy is a major thing, something that I think a lot of people take too lightly. She may have thought she was ready to enter into this surrogacy, but if she seriously didn't understand how the baby would be her biological child and that in signing the contract she would essentially be giving away her daughter, then her own ill-informed self is to blame. I am glad that now in certain states, these contracts are entered into after complete understanding between the parties involved. These contracts are very lengthy, but cover all bases in terms of medical care, intent, and plans during and post-pregnancy.
After the "Baby M" case, NJ and Michigan passed laws banning commercial surrogacy, and now traditional surrogates are not compensated for delivering a live child, but for being pregnant, and now the baby is the legal child of the intended parents prior to birth. These new laws definitely cover the problems that were addressed in the 1984 case.

Similarly, the case of Beasley vs. Wheeler poses questions about abortions and contact with the intended parents. My big concern with this situation is how the parties agreed any abortion would occur before 12 weeks, and at 24 weeks (after the intended parents were finally reachable from being abroad) they decided to reduce the pregnancy. Unfortunately, this agreement was only verbal, holding no court value. I am completely morally against reductions, and I hate it when people are hard to get in touch with, thus, I have to side with Beasley in this case. However, since the Wheelers had only verbally confirmed this 'reduction before 12 weeks' commitment, they are technically in the right. What can I say, more than THESE CONTRACTS NEED TO BE THOROUGH FOR GOODNESS SAKES!!!! Life throws you some pretty crazy situations that may change your mind over 9 months, and without these detailed contracts signed before the pregnancy, these types of cases become main stream media, causing dread to all families involved, making the child a major news story at birth.

When should traditional and gestational surrogacy happen? In my opinion-- never. I am religiously and ethically against any form of surrogacy because I think that it is disrespectful of a child's dignity, having the child question their identity as they grow up because surrogacy can get so darn confusing and emotionally involved. "Who is my mother?" "Did my parents love each other when I was conceived?" "If my mom is my aunt, should I think of her in a different light?" "Are my cousins my half brothers/sisters?" I believe that I will be repeating my self a fair amount in this blog when I say that a child should be conceived with the intention of conceiving, between a man and a woman who are sexually involved though marriage as an act of love for one another. Surrogacy undermines both those constants for me.
However, if I were to remove those ideas from my decision making, I would argue that traditional surrogacy should happen if the couple is LGBTQ and the surrogate is genetically bonded to the intended parents.