Medical and Mental Health Implications of Gestational Surrogacy and Trends in State Regulations on Compensated Gestational Surrogacy

Abstract

As the New York State legislature considers legalizing compensated gestational surrogacy this legislative session, this report provides insight into (1) the impact of surrogacy on the medical and mental health of women who become surrogates and the children born through gestational surrogacy, and (2) how other state legislatures have addressed compensated gestational surrogacy in recent years.

Medical research demonstrates that there is significant growth in gestational surrogacy in the United States. The number of families working with gestational surrogates has quadrupled in the new millennium. Weill Cornell Medicine physicians and medical students reviewed the published literature on the medical and mental health impacts to women who undergo in vitro fertilization (IVF) to become gestational carriers. Although people outside the medical community have questioned the health and psychological impacts of surrogates to prohibit gestational surrogacy, the scientific literature review demonstrates that there are in fact no significant adverse medical or psychological outcomes for women who are gestational carriers nor the children they give birth to.

Keywords: gestational surrogacy, state regulations, compensated gestational surrogacy, pregnancy, mental health, IVF, fertility, psychological health, children, embryo transfers, implications