Czyje dziecko, czyje? Kilka uwag o pochodzeniu dziecka na tle umów macierzyństwa zastępczego

Abstract

Surrogacy is a tool to fulfil anyone’s need and yearning for a child. Next to adoption, it provides the only additional way to be a parent, opposite to adoption – it makes an individual capable of having a genetically related child. However, since the beginning of application of methods of artificial procreation and surrogacy itself in the 70s, 80s of the twentieth century, the need for regulation of surrogacy, the legality of the contract is still a source of controversies in courtrooms as well as in scientific discourse. Unfortunately, usually the consequence of a contract, even regarded as invalid, is childbirth. The discussion about surrogacy is therefore not only scientific in its nature – it refers to a living human being and his legal and family status. A few years ago I wrote about surrogacy in the US, in order to show the complexity of the problem in a country where there is a multiplicity of regulations – from its prohibition, through the lack of references in the law, to a clear, pronounced acceptance of contracts and surrogacy itself. Today, I am coming back to the issue in order to make one of the most controversial American cases the background for reflections on the realities of today’s Polish law.