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Baby M Case Controversy

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In today’s society, there are a multitude of opportunities for people to make money. Many people will endure and go to different extremes to acquire financial aid, such as surrogacy. It is when women agree to bear a child for another person or persons. Depending on the demand and individual arrangement, the cost of surrogacy can average between $90,000 to $130,000. Surrogacy arrangements are beneficial when pregnancy is medically impossible, but there are also risks and consequences that can occur during or after the process. Baby M became a renowned case as it was the first American court ruling on the validity of surrogacy. With the potential health implications of pregnancy, William and Elizabeth Stern entered a surrogacy agreement with …show more content…
A few days passed when Mary Beth and her husband demanded for the infant and then abducted the infant. William and Elizabeth Stern decided to sue her for violating the agreement, and they wanted to be recognized as the legal parents for the infant. As events unfolded, the case quickly gained a lot of controversy and a lot of questions of morals and ethics surfaced, and legal issues took place. Surrogacy conflicts in the Baby M case caused problems which, like euthenasia and abortion, had no satisfactory solution that society would happily agree upon. According to “What the Baby M Case Is Really About” by Judith T. Younger, it stated that William Stern had the “right to procreate and the right of the biological father to his children” (75). On the other hand, Mary Beth Whitehead obtains the same right of being the biological mother to her children (75). There is a wide debate in society regarding which values are most significant when reaching a solution. Some believed that, regardless of the agreement, the biological mother should have all rights and custody of the baby because surrogacy was not legal in New

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