If A and B, who are married
couple, agreed to hire C to implant their egg and sperm cells and bear the
child in C’s own womb, who is the deemed to be the mother of the child in the
eyes of the law in the Philippines?
It is apparent that A,
B and C have entered into a contract of surrogacy. Surrogacy is the process
where another woman carries and delivers a child in behalf of another couple.
It involves the transplantation of the couple’s egg and sperm cells, usually
through artificial insemination to the surrogate mother. By nature, the
surrogate mother becomes the replacement of the natural mother of the child. In
this case, A and B are considered to be the putative parents of the child while
C takes the role of the surrogate mother. In the absence of surrogacy law in
the Philippines, the legal issue now redounds to the question of who then
becomes the mother of the child upon birth.
