Ancy, Jaime, Megan, Morgan, Sam and Zandra

1
CASE STUDY 3

• Ancy, Jaime, Megan, Morgan, Sam and Zandra

2
Case Study

• A woman unable to have children due to a
  hysterectomy wished to have children with her
  husband from the eggs removed previous to the
  surgery.
• Unable to carry a child because of the procedure
  her and her husband opted for surrogacy.
• The couple uses a company to match them with a
  surrogate mother.
• The company provides surrogate mothers that
  under go extensive mental testing to prove they
  are capable of carrying a baby for a couple and
  then able to release the baby into the care of
  the couple.
• The couple pays all of the womans pregnancy
  related expenses and an extra 18,000 in
  compensation for carrying the baby to term for
  them.
• After about 36,000 to the surrogate mother and
  the company, the surrogate mother decides that
  she is too attached to her child and can no
  longer give it up to the couple.
• A legal battle between the couple and the
  surrogate mother ensues.

3
Question!

• Do the biological parents have a moral right to
  the child? Present a moral argument representing
  a teleological assessment of the question.

4
Thesis

• When examining whether or not the biological
  parents have a moral right to the child from a
  teleological view, it can be determined that the
  parents do indeed have a moral right to the child.

5
Surrogacy

• It is the arrangement in which one woman( the
  surrogate mother) agrees to bear the child for a
  couple (the intended parents) and gives to them
  after birth. It is a benefit to childless to
  mothers to have their own offspring.

6
Who Opts for Surrogacy?

• Women are unable to carry a child to term due to
  failure of the embryo to implant, repeated
  miscarriage, hysterectomy or a pelvic disorder,
  high blood pressure, a heart condition or liver
  disease.
• Same-sex couples
• A man without a partner
• A woman who has embryos in storage with her male
  partner dies and the male wishes to use the
  embryos to have a child.

7
Criteria to Become a Surrogate

• Good overall health
• Should have borne at least one child previously
• -This also means that the woman
  is able to give her informed consent to the
  arrangement, since a woman who has experienced
  pregnancy prior to the surrogacy arrangement has
  that knowledge on which to base her decision.
• Upper age limit 35 years
• Emotional, physical support from partner, family
  or friend
• (Surrogacy UK, 2008)

8
Two Types of Surrogacy

• Partial surrogacy here the surrogate's own egg
  is fertilized with a sperm from the intended
  father or a donor thorough artificial
  insemination.
• Gestational surrogacy here the intended
  mothers eggs are fertilized with the intended
  fathers sperm through IVF and then the resulting
  embryo is transferred to the womb of the
  surrogate
• (Surrogacy-the issues, 2008)

9
Performing Gestational Surrogacy

• A chosen surrogate is screened for infectious
  diseases.
• At least one session with a psychologist is
  required.
• Consents are signed by all parties. Prior to
  initiation of the treatment,
• all potential issues need to be carefully
  clarified, put in writing, signed, and understood
  by all parties The patient is stimulated with
  medications to develop multiple egg development.
• To stimulate development of a receptive uterine
  lining, the surrogate is placed on medications
  that suppress her own menstrual cycle
• The eggs removed from her ovaries ,when the
  intended mothers follicles are mature. The eggs
  are then fertilized in the laboratory with her
  partner's sperm.
• After the embryos develop in the laboratory for 3
  days, they are placed in the surrogate's uterus
• The child goes home from the hospital with the
  genetic parents.
• (Gestational, 1996)

10
Teleological Ethics

• It is the theory of morality that derives duty or
  moral obligation from what is good or desirable
  as an end to be achieved.
• -Comes from Greek telos meaning end
• Logos meaning science
• -Also known as consequential ethics
• - The rightness of an action is determined by
  its consequences
• -When we make choices which result in the
  correct consequences, then we are acting
  morally when we make choices which result in the
  incorrect consequences, then we are acting
  immorally.
• - The right action is that which brings about
  the best consequences overall
• - In order to make moral choices, it is
  important to understand the results of that
  action.
• -Derives duty and moral responsibility from what
  is good or pleasurable as the end desiring to be
  accomplished.
• - An example would be Utilitarianism
• - Why?
• Because if defines the rightness of an action
  based on the actions promotion of pleasure.
• Pleasure meaning good
• - The right action would be that which produces
  the most pleasure for everyone concerned.
• -Often thought as the opposite of deontological
  ethics
• -An actions moral rightness is separate from
  good/evil produced

11
Teleological Ethics Cont

• When we consider Consequential ethics we must
  look at
• What is the action?
• The surrogate mother desiring to keep the
  carried baby.
• 1.) Who is affected by this action?
• The biological parents
• 2.) How are they affected?
• Emotionally- They have been preparing and
  changing their lives for the past 9 months in
  anticipation of adding a child to their family.
• Physically- the mother went through procedures to
  have her eggs removed
• Financially- The surrogate was compensated for
  the agreement
• 3.) Is the impact of this act positive or
  negative?
• The surrogates desire to keep the baby has a
  negative impact on the biological family.
• 4.) What is the cost involved?
• Going against her word
• In a sense, stealing a child
• Financially taking money for no action in return
• Causing emotional pain

12
Applying to Surrogate

• Therefore, when applied to the surrogate mother,
  her choice to keep the baby she is carrying is
  one alternative to the situation that does not
  produce the greatest balance of good over evil
  for all the members involved.  To grant the
  greatest amount of happiness to the greatest
  amount of people, the biological mother, father,
  and their child, there must be a case where the
  surrogate mother opts to not fight the child's
  parents for custody.The surrogate mother
  agreed to carry the child until birth where he or
  she would be given to the rightful parents.  The
  biological parents of the child found the
  surrogate mother and paid her for her services. 
  Upon her agreement, it becomes her moral
  obligation to carry the child for the parents. 
  It will then become an act of immorality if the
  surrogate mother does not follow through with her
  duty.
• An act should always be chosen with the
  knowledge that a desirable end will be achieved. 
  Therefore, the act the surrogate mother should
  chose is to give the child she is carrying to his
  or her biological parents.  The only way to act
  morally is if the choices made result in correct
  consequences.

13
Applying to Parents keeping child

• 1.) Who is affected by this action?
• The surrogate
• 2.) How are they affected?
• - Her body
• - Emotional attachment
• 3.) Is the impact of this act positive or
  negative?
• Positive because she is providing life for a
  family who is not capable. In addition, she will
  be following through with the agreement.
• 4.) What is the cost involved?
• - Her emotions
• - Her time

14
How it applies to the Parents?

• Therefore, according to teleological ethics an
  action is morally right when it brings the best
  consequences, promoting pleasure, to the most
  amounts of people. The parents have the moral
  responsibility of choosing to bring a child into
  the world. These ethical principles state that it
  is the duty or moral obligation to follow through
  with what is good or desirable. Therefore, the
  parents desire to keep their child would be
  morally right because the end result would
  produce the greatest amount of happiness for the
  most amount of people being the mother, father
  and child. Although the surrogate would be
  affected, it would be a greater pain for more
  amounts of people being the parents if they were
  not able to keep the child.

15
Who is J.S. Mill?

• 19th Century
• British Philosopher
• Teleological
• Thinker
• Wrote
• Utilitarianism
•  

16
J.S. Mill cont.

• Teleology, once again, is determining the
  goodness or morality of an action based upon
  its outcome whether the action is good or
  beneficial.
• Utilitarianism, according to Mill, is the
  principle of utility, which holds that actions
  are right in proportion as they tend to promote
  happiness wrong as they tend to produce the
  reverse of happiness. By happiness is intended
  pleasure and the absence of pain by unhappiness,
  pain and the privation of pleasure.
• Mills utilitarianism theory shows that what is
  morally right is an action that will produce the
  most pleasure or happiness.

17
J.S. Mill cont.

• In this situation, the outcome that would be the
  most beneficial to everyone involved would be the
  biological parents keeping their child. Even
  though the surrogate might be upset, she
  willingly agreed to and received compensation for
  carrying the child. The biological parents
  keeping their child would be beneficial to them
  because they would not only have a child that
  they otherwise were incapable of producing, but
  the child would be theirs physically. The child
  would also have the benefit of being raised by
  its biological parents, rather than a woman whom
  he has no biological attachment to.
• Based in teleological and utilitarianism views,
  it can be determined that the biological parents
  have a moral right to the child.

18
Conclusion

• Since the parents wanted a child but were unable
  to naturally conceive and carry, they chose to
  have a gestational surrogacy. The end result of
  the gestational surrogacy would be to have their
  own biological child, which is both a good and
  beneficial outcome for the parents as well as
  their unborn child. The parents would not only
  have a child, but would have their own biological
  child. The child would be able to grow up with
  its biological parents and not have to deal with
  any surprise discoveries.
• Mill defends the possibility and obligation to
  general happiness by showing how such a feeling
  can develop out of the natural desire we have to
  be in unity with other people
• It is a desire that enables us to care what
  happens to them and to perceive our own interests
  as linked with theirs. 
• If the surrogate was concerned more about the
  general happiness of everyone concerned and had
  her own interests linked with the biological
  parents interests, then her obligation of
  surrogacy would be clear.

19
References

• Gestational Surrogacy (1996). Retrieved December
  7, 2008, from Advanced fertility Center of
  Chicago Web site http//www.advancedfertility.com
  /surrogacy.htm
• Surrogacy-the issues (2008). Retrieved December
  7, 2008, from Better Health Channel Web site
  http//www.betterhealth.vic.gov.au/bhcv2/bhcArti
  cles.nsf/pages/Surrogacy_the_issu
  es?OpenDocument
• Surrogacy UK (2008). Retrieved December 7, 2008,
  from surrogacyuk.org Web site http//www.surroga
  cyuk.org/whatissurrogacya.html
• Ethics Deontological, Teleological and Virtue.
  (n.d.). Retrieved December 10, 2008, from
  http//atheism.about.com/library/FAQs/phil/blfaq_
  phileth_sys.htm.
• Teleological ethics - New World Encyclopedia.
  (n.d.). Retrieved December 10, 2008, from
• http//www.newworldencyclopedia
• teleological ethics. (2008). In Encyclopedia
  Britannica. Retrieved December 10, 2008, from
• Encyclopedia Britannica Online