Some people shake their heads over this #SurrogacyMyth but this thought has been voiced on more than one occasion. “Keeping one of the babies” comes up when a surrogate doesn’t want to go through a selective reduction and she thinks that the issue could be solved by her taking the responsibility of one child. There are so many reasons why this wouldn’t work. Who are the parents of these babies? The Intended Parents. Who is responsible for anything and everything that happens to these children after they are born? The Intended Parents. Most likely the contract states that the surrogate will agree to a selective reduction but now that the time has come, wants to change her mind, or wants the IPs to change their minds.
Can the Intended Parents force anyone to terminate a fetus? No, but they can state breach of contract and depending on how things are handled, a huge conflict between all parties will ruin the surrogacy relationship. If the surrogate decides to go against her agreement the IPs will still be completely responsible for all additional babies. Yes, the Intended Parents can put any and all of their children up for adoption at birth (or at any time; they are the parents) but I have found that most will keep any offspring that the surrogate gives birth to. There are rare exceptions, as always.
I personally don’t know of any gestational carriers who are raising someone else’s child that they, themselves, carried as a surrogate. If you know of someone, I would love to post their own personal story here.
