Without further ado, let’s see what kind of questions about genetics and surrogacy specialists usually have to answer.
About genetic relationships
“Is the baby genetically linked to the surrogate?” is by far the most often asked question concerning the surrogacy procedure. The answer varies depending on the kind of surrogacy you’re referring to.
You need to understand that it all depends on whose egg is utilized, not whose uterus is used.
The response would be “yes” in the case of traditional surrogacy, which is forbidden in many popular surrogacy destinations like Ukraine. With traditional surrogacy, the woman whose egg is fertilized is also a gestational carrier. She creates the embryo using her own egg and either sperm from a donor or the intended father, making her genetically linked to the child. Because of this, traditional surrogacy frequently resembles adoption more legally.
Gestational surrogacy is a completely different case. The answer is “no” in gestational surrogacy, the preferred and more popular contemporary surrogacy procedure. The children carried by gestational surrogates have no biological connection to them. Using egg and sperm from intended parents or donors, IVF is used to develop an embryo, which is then transported to the uterus of the gestational surrogate to be borne.
Above all, keep in mind that a surrogate child will always have a genetic connection to the person whose egg and sperm were used to develop the child.
About blood
Do the children of surrogate mothers have blood ties to them? Only traditional surrogacy implies a biological connection to the children a gestational mother carries, so in that sense, they would be “blood” relatives. The gestational surrogates the intended parents match with are not biologically related to the child and are not considered “blood” relatives to the baby they carry.
The short answer to whether surrogates share blood with the fetus in the womb is yes. Any pregnancy involves the transfer of blood, oxygen, and nutrients from the pregnant mother to the developing fetus via the umbilical cord. The surrogate’s blood type is irrelevant because many genetic moms and their offspring have different blood types.
Before the surrogacy process starts, blood testing and comprehensive medical screenings are necessary to check for any communicable diseases because those problems might be transmitted from the carrier to the fetus in gestation.
About DNA inheritance
Many individuals want to know more about how genes are passed down through families and how the surrogacy procedure can affect that. The fundamentals of genetics first:
- To form an embryo, you need female genetic material (an egg having that person’s DNA) and male genetic material (sperm containing that person’s DNA).
- The genetic material will still only come from the two people who made the embryo, regardless of whose uterus it develops in. When it comes to genetic inheritance, only the egg and sperm matter.
When an embryo develops in another woman’s womb, it won’t inherit that woman’s DNA because science simply doesn’t work that way.
About the appearance of the baby
If a child born via surrogacy is going to resemble anybody, it will be the two persons who provided the egg and the sperm that was used to create the embryo.
The child will not resemble the surrogate if she is a gestational surrogate, which means that another woman’s egg was used to generate the embryo.
The child will surely resemble the intended parents if they provide the egg and sperm. However, there is never a guarantee that a child will totally inherit how their biological parents look like. The child would resemble the egg and sperm donors if they were utilized to produce the embryo.
The uterus does not affect the look of the baby.
Who are the child’s real parents?
Who are a child’s “real” parents when he or she is born via surrogacy? The two individuals who supplied the egg and the sperm would be the correct answer biologically.
However, some intended parents require egg and/or sperm donors in order to conceive, thus their kid will either share one or neither of their genetics. This usage of donor gametes does not affect the ties that bind families.
Delivering Dreams International Surrogacy Agency will provide you with answers for every question you might have about your surrogacy.
A professional writer with over a decade of incessant writing skills. Her topics of interest and expertise range from health, nutrition and psychology.
