Attitudes toward surrogacy among doctors working in reproductive medicine and obstetric care in Sweden

Abstract

There is a relatively strong support among physicians working within obstetrics and reproductive medicine for the introduction of surrogacy in Sweden. However, the physicians expressed concerns about the surrogate mothers' health as well as the risk of coercion. Further discussions about legalization of surrogacy should include views from individuals within a wide field of different medical professions and laymen.

Attachment avoidance and parenthood desires in gay men and lesbians and their heterosexual counterparts

“…The lesser desire for parenthood in GL is usually accounted for by the internalisation of negative stigma and barriers to parenthood such as fertility treatments, adoption and surrogacy. Studies have reported less support from reproductive and legal agencies which may not be willing to work with prospective sexual minority parents (Goldberg, Gartrell, & Gates, 2014;Ioverno et al, 2018;Riskind, Patterson, & Nosek, 2013;Stenfelt et al, 2018).…”

“…A lesser desire for parenthood was also linked to the awareness that GL may encounter numerous legal and social hurdles when attempting to become parents. These include restrictions on adoption (Blake et al, 2017;Patterson, 2009), refusals of service from reproductive health providers (Gurmankin, Caplan, & Braverman, 2005;Stenfelt, Armuand, Wånggren, Skoog Svanberg, & Sydsjö, 2018) and the financial hardship associated with surrogacy and adoption (Shenkman & Shmotkin, 2016). Although studies have examined the associations between the desire to become a parent and intentions, estimates of likelihood, age, subjective well-being and depression among GL (Costa & Bidell, 2017;Shenkman, 2012), no study has directly investigated the association between attachment styles and the desire to become a parent as a function of sexual orientation.…”

Deciding to parent or remain childfree: Comparing sexual minority and heterosexual childless adults from Israel, Portugal, and the United Kingdom.

“…The rationale for this derives from LGB awareness of facing legal, social, and reproductive hurdles each of which could daunt aspirations for parenthood (Gato et al, 2020; Shenkman & Abramovitch, 2020; Tate et al, 2019). Lower aspirations to parenthood among LGB also could relate to service refusal from reproductive health centers (Stenfelt et al, 2018) or the possible internalization of homonegativity (Salinas-Quiroz et al, 2020; Simon et al, 2018). Traditionally, heterosexual couples also tend to face more pressure to have children and conform to traditional gender roles than has been experienced by LGB individuals (Allen & Mendez, 2018), although this has perhaps been changing in some contexts (Clarke et al, 2018).…”

What We Know and What Remains to Be Explored about LGBTQ Parent Families in Israel: A Sociocultural Perspective

“…The differences between the two groups echo similar findings in other countries, which are usually explained as resulting from stronger social pressure on heterosexual couples than LGBTQ individuals to have children and obey traditional gender roles [ 50 ], alongside LGB people’s awareness of the legal and social hurdles that could hinder their parenthood aspirations, e.g., [ 51 , 52 ]. Lower parenthood aspirations among LGB individuals could also stem from discrimination and prejudice on the part of reproductive health professionals [ 53 ], internalization of homonegativity [ 47 ], institutional discrimination such as state bans on same-sex marriage and adoption, and continuing minority social stress [ 8 , 54 ]. In a further attempt to explain the difference in parenthood aspirations between LGB and heterosexual individuals, a third study compared 174 Israeli LGB with 438 heterosexual participants, exploring the possible mediation of anticipation of stigma upon parenthood in the association between being a member of a sexual minority and lower parenting desires, intentions, and likelihood estimations [ 48 ].…”