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Back The Surrogate Save as PDF
Chapters (65)
  1. Cover
  2. Dedication
  3. Epigraph
  4. Part One
  5. One
  6. Two
  7. Three
  8. Four
  9. Five
  10. Six
  11. Seven
  12. Eight
  13. Nine
  14. Ten
  15. Eleven
  16. Twelve
  17. Thirteen
  18. Fourteen
  19. Fifteen
  20. Sixteen
  21. Seventeen
  22. Eighteen
  23. Nineteen
  24. Twenty
  25. Twenty-One
  26. Twenty-Two
  27. Twenty-Three
  28. Twenty-Four
  29. Twenty-Five
  30. Twenty-Six
  31. Twenty-Seven
  32. Twenty-Eight
  33. Twenty-Nine
  34. Thirty
  35. Thirty-One
  36. Thirty-Two
  37. Thirty-Three
  38. Part Two
  39. Thirty-Four
  40. Thirty-Five
  41. Thirty-Six
  42. Thirty-Seven
  43. Thirty-Eight
  44. Thirty-Nine
  45. Forty
  46. Forty-One
  47. Forty-Two
  48. Forty-Three
  49. Forty-Four
  50. Forty-Five
  51. Forty-Six
  52. Forty-Seven
  53. Forty-Eight
  54. Forty-Nine
  55. Fifty
  56. Fifty-One
  57. Part Three
  58. Fifty-Two
  59. Fifty-Three
  60. Fifty-Four
  61. Fifty-Five
  62. Fifty-Six
  63. Acknowledgments
  64. About the Author
  65. About the Publisher

I got in the driver’s seat and buckled up. As I started the car, I paused. In the rearview mirror, Elizabeth stared into space in utter innocence, unaware of what I was feeling or where we were going. Suddenly, she spit up on the cotton blanket I’d draped over her chest. I put the car in gear, tears streaming down my face. “Here we go.” I looked at her in the mirror. She scrunched her nose and shook her head, unhappy and unpleasant. She didn’t look well. “We didn’t ask you, did we?” I said. “We didn’t ask what you wanted.”

I’d started a story. In my head. A story about surrogates. And the babies they carry. About the ways in which it is different from adoption. And I’d made lists of places to start my research, interviews I’d want to take with the women and doctors, ethicists, psychologists. Maybe Professor Judith could help me with the economic inequities angle. When I got back to work.

And I wondered about the medical risks to surrogates. Cally had suffered postpartum hemorrhaging and had to undergo surgery, but I hadn’t thought about that as a possible risk before we signed the contract. Had she? And I hadn’t thought about the intended parents’ liability for harm to their surrogates. I planned to research the medical risk issues for my article. And I was curious to see how Hal’s contract addressed it. I looked for a clause that said either we were or weren’t legally responsible for medical risks or any damage to her health. I didn’t find any, but I wanted to be sure. On a cold day the prior week, I dialed Hal’s office and Pat answered.

“I’m sorry, but Hal’s in a mediation. Can I help you with something?”

“As a matter of fact, yes,” I said, thinking this was a perfect opportunity to get an objective answer. “You have the most recent version of our surrogacy contract, right?”

“Of course,” she said, and I could hear her typing.

I asked Pat to look for any provision in the agreement that absolved us from liability. She put me on hold, and the music was an instrumental version of Barry Manilow. Ready to take a chance again. Finally, Pat came back. “Ruth?” she said.

“Yes.”

“I don’t see anything in here that absolves or relieves the intended parents from liability for physical harm or medical damage to the surrogate. Nothing like that. But I also don’t see anything that says you are responsible. It’s silent. It just doesn’t address it either way.”

“And how do you think the court would interpret that?” I asked.