What is surrogate parenthood?
A woman agrees, with or without payment, to bear a child for someone else. This usually occurs when a wife cannot conceive or carry a child to term. In most cases, through artificial insemination, the husband’s sperm fertilizes an egg belonging to either the wife or the surrogate mother. This makes the husband the biological father of the child. The surrogate mother agrees to give up all parental rights at birth. Then the wife of the biological father legally adopts the child. Some states permit surrogate parenting arrangements; others prohibit them. How do you determine paternity in cases that don’t involve surrogacy or artificial insemination? Paternity cases increasingly rely on scientific evidence. The blood tests used during much of the last century were useful only up to a certain point. They might prove that a man was not the father of a child, but could not prove that he was the father. New tests that sample the DNA (genetic material) of the child and the supposed father are ne
