Post-Class Reflection on Traditional and Gestational Surrogacy

Reasons for wanting to be a surrogate probably stem from a biological connection to the intended parents, desires to be pregnant, and monetary incentive. Each one of these can be used against a surrogate and can be used as blinders to the logistical and legal act of surrogacy. Whether a woman's decisive and impulsive desire to help her homosexual brother and his partner through surrogacy, to want to be pregnant, or to have a little extra cash, these incentives may lead her to overlook some of the important issues that come up during surrogacy. What will happen if she becomes attached to the child? How does she get paid 'fairly' for her services? What if she enters into unhealthy habits during pregnancy? How can she be reprimanded for a breach in the contract?
Contracts should be as thorough as possible to avoid as many legal mishaps during/after the pregnancy as can be. But what about verbal contracts that happen to protect the surrogate's ethical standing, as in the Beasley case? Whose decision is it during the pregnancy whether or not to end the pregnancy? The surrogate is being paid for her 'services', not her eggs, or any other form of nurturing. Thus, the intended parents should have full rights to determine PNI, and all abortion/reduction decisions, but only to the extent to which it does not harm the surrogate mother. After all, they do not have control over her body, only what can be done to their child. This is intact with the California law which gives parental rights to the intended parents, not the surrogate. However, I do think that it should be left up to the states to determine which rights the surrogate is allowed. This would allow surrogates who disagree with certain issues (reductions, PNI, decision making) to still be able to be a surrogate without disregarding the idea because of the regulations of a clinic.
Dealing with the price of surrogacy, women should be paid equally for their services of surrogacy. I do think that 'bonus's' will most definitely be given to women under the table if they agree to live to a certain lifestyle or agree to the intended parents desires, but logistically, the government will never be able to regulate that risk. It is more important to hold the standard of equality initially, then not condone, but not punish those who would like to go beyond the cost to ensure their surrogate's pregnancy plays out like they want.