Breast Milk as the Forgotten Ethical Right in Surrogacy and Suggestions for Its Recognition: Islamic Perspective, Iranian Experience

Humans have made various efforts to overcome infertility since ancient times. One of the modern assisted reproductive techniques is surrogacy which in this way; a woman agrees to become pregnant and carry a baby for another couple and give them the resulting offspring after birth so that they take paternal and maternal responsibility. The content of the contracts between the owner of the uterus and the applying couples is delivery of the baby to the intended couples that is usually determined by indicating the time “immediately after birth” or “as soon as birth” or “upon birth” when the nutritional status of the child by breastfeeding is not determined and even in other articles it has not even been considered. In Iran, according to the articles of the written surrogacy contract, surrogate has to deliver the baby to the intended couples immediately after birth, too. Therefore breastfeeding of newborn infant has been missed in surrogacy agreement.
In this study, we have attempted to defend the right to be breast-fed for the child of surrogacy and the right of the breast-feeding for the surrogate mother as rights that make others obligation in Iran. In addition, we propose an altruistic way and the acceptance of two motherly perspectives in surrogacy for the realization of this right.
This study is a theoretical, review, library and content analysis study. First, a combination of key words such as Surrogacy Act, Ethics, Surrogacy Arrangement, and Breastfeeding was searched in the valid databases. Due to lack of the theme of breastfeeding in surrogacy contracts, in the second part of the study, the importance of breast milk was investigated from the medical and Islamic perspectives by searching keywords in medical database, verses of Quran and valid juridical sources and the related extracted information were categorized and their content was analyzed. Then, the right to breastfeed the baby in surrogacy was examined from the rights perspective and how to exercise this right.
Consideration of the importance of breastfeeding from the medical, Islamic points of view and legal perspective, breastfeeding is recognized as a right of newborn and mother’s right or obligation. Surrogacy develops a mother-child relationship and is therefore liable to mother and child benefits. On the other hand, the breastfeeding right is not mentioned explicitly in surrogacy contract and this right has been missed.
It is suggested that in surrogacy both the intended parents and the owner of the womb be provided with the necessary information about the advantages of the breast milk for the child and for the mother at the time of consulting before signing the contract. In addition, the breastfeeding right should be given to the surrogate mother and it should be stated that this right is not considered as the custody right.