"The truth about my pregnancy decision": Kim Kardashian reveals if surrogate baby is biologically her and Kanye's

Since welcoming baby number three Kim Kardashian and Kanye West have been the hot topic of conversation, with fans speculating on all manner of details including whether they were in the delivery, what the baby's name is and even a wild rumour about sister Kylie(http://florydowswell.strikingly.com/blog/surrogates-in-usa-now) being the secret surrogate.

But now Kim has spoken out on one detail fans weren't expecting - that she did not actually have a 'surrogate' pregnancy, at least in the traditional sense.

Kim had been forced to look for alternatives after being told how it had been unsafe for her to carry a third baby as she struggles with high risk conditions preeclampsia and placenta accreta.

Although Kim has repeatedly referred to the woman carrying her child as 'her surrogate' what she actually had was a 'gestational carrier' - meaning her newborn daughter IS biologically both hers and Kanye's.

Speaking via her app , Kim explained: "A traditional surrogate donates her egg, is artificially inseminated with the father's sperm and then carries the baby to term.

"Since we implanted my fertilized egg in our gestational carrier, our baby is biologically mine and Kanye’s," she confirmed. Adding: "You can either choose someone that you know or you can go through an agency, like Kanye and I did,"

The now mum-of-three was also keen to point out that although she didn't carry the baby herself, the process was in no way 'an easy way out.'

"It’s not for everyone, but I absolutely love my gestational carrier and this was the best experience I've ever had," she said.

"Our gestational carrier gave us the greatest gift one could give. The connection with our baby came instantly and it's as if she was with us the whole time. Having a gestational carrier was so special for us and she made our dreams of expanding our family come true.

"We are so excited to finally welcome home our baby girl." she added.

Kim announced the news she had welcomed her third baby with husband Kanye West by posting on Twitter 'She's here!'

In a more lengthy statement, Kim continued: "7lbs 6oz. Kanye and I are happy to announce the arrival of our healthy, beautiful baby girl.

"We are incredibly grateful to our surrogate who made our dreams come true with the greatest gift one could give and to our wonderful doctors and nurses for their special care. North and Saint are especially thrilled to welcome their baby sister.

"Love, Kim Kardashian West."

Kim and Kanye - who are already parents to daughter North, four, and two-year-old son Saint, turned to surrogacy after suffering a failed IVF attempt before conceiving Saint, and being warned that another pregnancy could be dangerous for Kim.

The surrogate chosen has remained anonymous, but Kim said that although she was hard to find, she was worth the wait.

“Finding someone you really trust is really more difficult than you can imagine. it was maybe a year before we finalized our current situation," she said.

“She’s such a nice person. Like, she’s so easy to talk to.”

As the Wests get used to life as a family of five, just hours after the birth, Kanye was spotted smiling as he made his way back to work .

The rapper and entrepreneur beamed and threw peace signs as he headed into his office with a laptop and phone clutched in his hand.

Kanye was dressed in one of his own black Yeezy tracksuits as he made his way to his Calabasas studio, in LA.

Source:

The Telegraph - Telegraph Online, Daily Telegraph, Sunday Telegraph - Telegraph

Surrogacy: A 21st Century Human Rights Challenge

The growing surrogacy phenomenon in which women agree to have their bodies used to undergo a pregnancy and give birth to the resulting baby is becoming a major issue of the 21st century. Surrogacy is often referred to as “womb renting” wherein a bodily service is provided for a fee. The practice is fraught with complexity and controversy surrounding the implications for women’s health and human rights generally. Society is only beginning to grapple with the issues that it raises. Increasingly, surrogates function as gestational carriers, carrying a pregnancy to delivery after having been implanted with an embryo. Since the surrogate usually has no biological relationship to the child, she has no legal claim and the surrogate’s name does not appear on the birth certificate. In the United States there is no national regulation of surrogacy and its fifty states constitute a patchwork quilt of policies and laws, ranging from outright bans to no regulation.

A few of the many issues raised by surrogacy include: the rights of the children produced; the ethical and practical ramifications of the further commodification of women’s bodies; without regulation, fraud committed by surrogacy companies cannot be prevented or prosecuted; the exploitation of poor and low income women desperate for money; the moral and ethical consequences of transforming a normal biological function of a woman’s body into a commercial transaction.

The lack of national laws or regulation of surrogacy in the United States is cast against a backdrop of rising usage. The American Society for Reproductive Medicine reported a 30% increase in surrogate births between 2004 and 2006, for a total of 1,059 live births in 2006, the most recent year for which it could provide data. Industry experts estimate that the actual number is much higher since many surrogate births go unreported.

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A fertility-industrial complex has been created to cater to the 8 million infertile women in the United States alone, who are spending approximately $3 billion a year to try to help themselves conceive. Even though the cost to the intended parent(s), including medical and legal bills, runs from $40,000 to $120,000, the demand for qualified surrogates is well ahead of supply. The surrogate herself typically is paid $20,000 to $25,000 in the U.S., which averages approximately $3.00 per hour for each hour she is pregnant, based on a pregnancy of 266 days or 6,384 hours.

In surrogacy, the rights of the child are almost never considered. Transferring the duties of parenthood from the birthing mother to a contracting couple denies the child any claim to its “gestational carrier” and to its biological parents if the egg and/or sperm is/are not that of the contracting parents. In addition, the child has no right to information about any siblings he or she may have in the latter instance.

Surrogacy is another form of the commodification of women’s bodies. Surrogate services are advertised, surrogates are recruited, and operating agencies make large profits. The commercialism of surrogacy raises fears of a black market and baby selling, of breeding farms, turning impoverished women into baby producers and the possibility of selective breeding at a price. Surrogacy degrades a pregnancy to a service and a baby to a product.

The Center for Bioethics and Culture (CBC) has been in the forefront of the movement demanding morally responsible science for over a decade. We call for a cessation of this practice that exploits women’s bodies and endangers their health, disregards the human rights of the children produced, and commodifies human life, turning the miracle of birth into just another commercial transaction and business opportunity for endless profit generation.