Surrogate motherhood is changing the nature of reproduction for some modern American families. Women and couples now have a range of options that allow them to achieve a much desired pregnancy when all hope seems to be lost, but surrogacy offers even the most impossible of cases the opportunity to experience a pregnancy. The only difference is that they are not actually carrying the child. In order to understand the nature of parenthood in America today, one must consider surrogate parenting among the array of reproductive choices.

Surrogacy is the practice wherein a woman carries and delivers a baby for someone else. A contract is usually involved and the surrogate agrees to surrender the baby at birth. The contract may or may not include a financial arrangement. There are two alternative forms of surrogacy: traditional surrogacy and gestational surrogacy. Traditional surrogacy is where the surrogate donates her ovum and is artificially inseminated with the sperm of the man who will become the custodial father. In gestational surrogacy, the embryo (usually resulting from the sperm and egg of the future custodial parents) is implanted in the surrogate. Surrogacy becomes more confusing in a few cases, with donor egg and semen being implanted in a surrogate.

Commercial surrogacy began in the United States in the late 1970s. A lawyer named Noel Keane organized the first third-party arranged surrogacies and opened a surrogacy agency. The term itself does not seem to have appeared until 1981.

Surrogacy quickly raised a number of ethical and legal dilemmas. Those who support the practice argue that it provides infertile couples with a means to becoming parents. Opponents claim that surrogacy is nothing more than a form of baby farming, wherein women are reduced to breeders, exploited physically and emotionally by wealthy couples who take advantage of the surrogate