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Summary of Question:	Surrogate Motherhood
Category:	Love & Marriage
Date Posted:	Wednesday, 7/31/2002 3:48 PM MDT

Hi!!!! This question is in regards to surrogate motherhood. We have had major debates in our family in regarding this issue. I was curious is why punjabi people don't turn to surrogate motherhodd when they cant have children. I know many ppl who are childless and many who have tried other medical ways to conceive but have had no luck. I know that if that problem ever arose with me i would want to turn to surrogate motherhood. So why is it that we have never seen any punjab couples try surrogate motherhood. Even couples who were raised in north america refuse to see surrogate motherhood as an option but it is so common in the white community. I know that using surrogate motherhood is a personal decision between the couple. Is surrogate motherhood going aganist are cultural values/beliefs ???? I have asked my grandparents that question but no one is able to answer my question.

ANSWER: Remember we sikhs believe in no sex before marriage so the thought of surrogate motherhood is alien to the sikh and perhaps specifically to the Indian culture. In India I have heard that in families there were times especially when families were very large... a sister would give a child to her sister who had none. Also adoption is working and also I suspect new technologies and fertility techniques are working... We just do not have any statistics and I suspect where surrogates have been used people are very quiet due to the cultural baiases that exist today. In the west I am sure some people have used surrogates and yet we do not know.

This is often a very personal choice and can only be addressed as one faces it. There are no rules against it/for it. A tough question Thank you for asking it and bravo for discussing it in your family.


SSM