IVF vs SURROGACY vs ADOPTION

IVF Vs Surrogacy Vs Adoption

For the people who don’t know what IVF, surrogacy and adoption is, let me give you a brief introduction.

In vitro fertilisation (IVF) is a process of fertilisation where an egg is combined with sperm in vitro (“in glass”). Fertilised egg is transferred by catheter into the uterus, with the intention of establishing a successful pregnancy.

Surrogacy is an arrangement, often supported by a legal agreement, whereby a woman agrees to deliver on behalf of another couple or person, who will become the child’s parent(s) after birth.

Adoption is a process whereby a person assumes the parenting of another child, from that of biological parent or parents. Legal adoptions permanently transfer all rights and responsibilities, along with filiation, from the biological parents to the adoptive parents.

Today I am going to express my views on all the three ways of becoming a parent.

Generally, we choose one the above ways of becoming parent when we are not able to do so biologically. Well! There can be other reasons also, but primarily incapability of becoming a parent naturally is the basic reason.

• IVF is mentally, physically and financially very exhausting. If IVF is successful in one, two, or three attempts it’s great, however IVF success rate in India falls between 30-35 percent, which means if 100 aspiring parents make an IVF attempt, maximum 35 of them will be successful and the rest will not be. The global average success rate of IVF in 1^st attempt is around 35%. Then aspiring parents go for 2^nd, 3^rd, at times 4^th and 5^th IVF attempts.

Now imagine the financial, physical and mental implications of unsuccessful IVF. It has financial burden on the pockets of aspiring parent. There are various studies and articles about depression, anxiety and troubled mental health of failed IVF. Even months after, psychological effects exist which can be very disturbing. So think! how many attempts of IVF is advisable and should be taken?

• Surrogacy is financially and mentally very consuming. Although the success rate of surrogacy is very high – above 90%, the financial implications are huge and not easily affordable.

There are some ethical questions that really disturb me.

1. According to the Surrogacy Act, no woman, other than an ever married woman having a child of her own and between the age of 25 to 35 years on the day of implantation, shall be a surrogate mother or help in surrogacy by donating her egg.
2. According to Surrogacy Act, no woman shall act as a surrogate mother more than once in her lifetime.

To what extent these clauses of the Act gets fulfilled is a big question in front of us.

Is it morally correct to put another woman’s life to risk and complications even if minimal? We are so self-centered that at times we fail to ask these questions to ourselves.

I understand that there is a legal contract between the intending parent and the surrogate mother, and all clauses are discussed and explained, but still the question arises, how does our conscious allow this? 

Adoption in India is a long, tedious process with huge waiting period, sometimes over 3 years due to stringent rules of CARA and availability of legally free child. Adopting a foster child can take around 18 months and more. Adopting a new-born can take above 2 years. International adoptions can take four or more years; hence India has become a hub for international surrogacy. Just imagine 50% of surrogacy in India is International Surrogacy.

Apart from these statistical issues, in India adoption is still considered a BIG NO, because we have not yet come out of the social stigma attached to it. It is estimated that there are 29.6 million stranded, orphaned and abandoned children in India. Just 3-4,000 get adopted annually.

If we do comparative study regarding time taken in all the processes, one IVF cycle is around 8 weeks so roughly it takes 8 months for 3 IVF cycles (excluding tests conducted before the procedure). The surrogacy process takes around 15 to 18 months on an average once you are matched. Adoption process also takes around 18 months to 2 years on an average.

My view: We are more focused towards how we become parents, which method we use for pregnancy, rather than the main objective of becoming a parent any which way. We are so attached towards the process we adopt towards becoming a parent that we lose out on the ultimate goal. I think we should experience the joy of becoming a parent rather than concentrating on methodology. Question yourself, “what is more important, becoming a parent or the technique used for becoming a parent?” As prospective parents one should be very clear for their ultimate goal along with analysing the overall situation. Many times the expected parents are themselves not sure of IVF, surrogacy or adoption and put the onus on family members and the society.

So think and do share your views!!

Source: Wikipedia, articles and statistics available on Google

Disclaimer: these are purely my views. The statistics and views are majorly for Indian prospective parents with no intention to degrade or hurt anybody’s emotions anywhere.