Surrogacy: Viewpoints of Infertile Women

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

1 M.Sc. of Midwifery, Student Research committee, Faculty of Nursing and Midwifery, Tabriz University of Medical Sciences, Tabriz, Iran.

2 Lecturer of Midwifery, Faculty of Nursing and Midwifery, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran

3 Assistant professor, Department of Health, Faculty of Health, Hamadan University of Medical Sciences, Hamadan, Iran.

Abstract

Introduction: Infertility as a stressful life crisis can devastate person’s mental health. One of the latest methods of assisted reproductive technology is surrogacy. This technique is considered as the most controversial reproductive techniques in recent years because of its unique aspects. So, this study was performed with the purpose of determining the knowledge and attitude of infertile women about surrogacy.
Methods: This descriptive and cross sectional study was conducted on 150 infertile women who were referred to Fatemieh infertility treatment center in Hamadan, Iran, 2010 to 2011. Samples were selected by systematic randomized method. Data gathering tools was interviewing with a questionnaire. Data were analyzed using SPSS software version 16, and descriptive analytical spearman tests. P value less than 0.05 was considered significant.
Results: 65 infertile women (43.3%) was agree with using surrogacy if necessary. 74 women (49.3%) preferred using known surrogate mother. 103 women (68.6%) agreed with disclosure to child about the fact. 101 women (67.3%) did not have received any educational information about surrogacy. However only 15 infertile women (10%) did not had enough knowledge toward surrogacy, but 80 women of them (53.3%) had positive attitudes toward surrogacy.
Conclusions: Despite of good knowledge of infertile women toward surrogacy, their attitudes about this technology are not so positive. So, changing the cultural background in the society for better acceptability of this technique seems to be necessary.
 

Keywords