Surrogate mother

A surrogate mother is a woman who agrees to become pregnant and deliver a child for a contracted party. She may be the child's genetic mother or may as a gestational carrier after having been implanted with an embryo.

Sourced

• The surrogacy contract violates the policy of this State that the rights of natural parents are equal concerning their child, the father's right no greater than the mother's. The parent and child relationship extends equally to every child and to every parent, regardless of the marital status of the parents.
  • Robert Wilentz, Chief Justice of the New Jersey Supreme Court, Baby M, 1988.

• Under the contract, the natural mother is irrevocably committed before she knows the strength of her bond with her child. She never makes a totally voluntary, informed decision, for quite clearly any decision prior to the baby's birth is, in the most important sense, uninformed, and any decision after that, compelled by a pre-existing contractual commitment....
  • Robert Wilentz, Chief Justice of the New Jersey Supreme Court, Baby M, 1988.