In addition to including medical complications, there are psychological risks for the surrogate mother, future psychological risks for the child, lack of trust between the surrogate mother and the intended parents, etc. Women may have psychological reactions to being surrogate mothers that include depression when delivering the baby, grief, and even refusal to release the baby. This can be seen in the iconic Baby M case. In the Baby M case, a traditional surrogacy was arranged between the Sterns and Mary Beth Whitehead. Everything went smoothly until the last months of pregnancy, when Whitehead began acting on her own. After giving birth to the baby, she had difficulty delivering him and returned the next day saying she was suicidal because of it. (Baby M and Mary Beth Whitehead. Surrogate pregnancy in court) She threatened to kill herself and the baby if she couldn't keep her. Whitehead had held the baby for months after the birth while the trial took place. There was a constant struggle between Whitehead and Mr. Stern, the two biological parents who each wanted custody, and they developed something of a strange relationship, acting as if they were a couple. In the testimony, Whitehead and Stern discuss the fate of "their" child, completely ignoring Mrs. Stern, who was the intended mother. (Surrogacy: Baby M) The problem with traditional surrogacy is that the intended mother has no biological or physical connection to the baby. It can cause an identity problem for the child and problems in the future for the parents, since only one of the prospective parents is actually biologically related to the child. The technological solution to this problem is gestational surrogacy, but this too has its problems. Gestational surrogacy involves a surrogate mother being implanted with the fertilized egg(s) of the intended parents through in vitro fertilization. IVF has its own list of ethical issues and risks, but for simplicity's sake, IVF carries some medical risks.
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