California couples trying to have a baby through a surrogate might already know all of the expensive hoops they have to jump through. Surrogacy can be a huge investment, costing both time and money to find the right arrangement.
However, not all surrogacy agencies are created equal. Anyone can start a surrogacy business at any time and take advantage of hopeful parents-to-be, causing a lot of frustration and distrust of the surrogacy industry.
Are surrogacies regulated in the United States?
Surrogacies are not regulated in the United States, which is part of where the frustration comes in. Since there’s no regulation process, anyone can create a surrogacy agency and potentially scam people of their money.
What are the benefits of regulation?
Regulation can be a scary topic for businesses. Many companies don’t want the government to give them rules to comply to, especially since the government can be out of touch with what the actual industry needs. There’s even more frustration over bringing government regulators into surrogacy, which is so closely related to parent and family rights that it can be messy. However, regulation of some sort would help the industry as a whole and protect hopeful individuals as they try to become parents.
What’s the alternative to regulation?
An alternative path that many industries turn to is self-regulation, which is the process of setting widely accepted standards for businesses to follow. This accreditation and regulation process helps set standards to protect consumers and uphold the ethics of the industry.
Without this regulation, the weight is placed on the parents to do in-depth research on each surrogacy agency to keep from getting scammed. Hopeful parents could look at things like customer testimonials, B2B ratings and the age of the business to make a good decision when it comes to surrogacy agencies.