Surrogacy, an increasingly frequent form of family building, allows individuals to become parents despite an infertility diagnosis or a biological impossibility. Regardless of the inherent medical, psychological, ethical and legal complexities, altruistic gestational surrogacy became legal in Portugal in 2016. This paper's main goal is to analyse the existing scientific knowledge on the subject and try to understand it in light of the current Portuguese Law. To achieve this goal, PubMed, Scopus, and Web of Science databases were used to search original studies published in English, that included the keywords 'assisted reproduction, commissioning couples, cross-border surrogacy, ethics, gay father, gestational carriers, gestational surrogacy, surrogacy, surrogacy families, surrogate mothers', from 2011 to 2017. Positive outcomes for both the surrogacy child and the surrogate mother have been reported, including in cases of same-sex male couples and single persons, who still have their access to surrogacy restricted in Portugal. Even though payment is forbidden in Portugal, an ongoing debate still exists because remuneration does not necessary involve undue inducement of the surrogate or transformation of the child into a commodity. The growing crossborder surrogacy business raises discussion on the women exploitation's risks and the lack of security for all parties involved. Additionally, the alarming hazard of surrogacy children becoming stateless creates an urgent need for international regulations. The right to regret and the doctors' autonomy before the committee are two issues neglected by the Portuguese Law that should be investigated. Nevertheless, literature on surrogacy is scarce, and most of the existing studies have important methodological limitations, so further investigation is much needed.
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