From time immemorial, humans have sought to procreate and bring new life into the world. However, it is not set in stone that the process of bringing new life is easy and without ethical concerns.
Some non-fertile men have set up their wives to be raped in order to see a heir. Some women have agreed for their husbands to marry a second wife if she could not have children.
In the age of science and technology, there is the invention of surrogacy that sees a woman being paid to carry a child for another woman.
Surrogacy has however been criticised as unethical due to how surrogates are treated, the exploitation of poorer women and how no amount of money can ever truly compensate for the pregnancy complications that can arise.
But what do women themselves think of surrogacy?
Urban Woman Magazine recently spoke to some women to get their thoughts.
Read their responses below.
Precious
I know we think about surrogacy from the angle that a couple is infertile and desperate.
Over the years I’ve seen and heard people say they like surrogacy just because they don’t want to lose their figure or experience the dangers of pregnancy, sometimes there’s no desperation, only vanity.
Men will say, “Oh, I can’t allow my wife to go through this” after watching a video of the dangers of pregnancy, because why be there for your wife during pregnancy when you can just put the labour on someone else because you’re rich?
To me, it’s equivalent to classed women/feminists that “don’t talk about housework and domestic responsibilities” because of course they’ll hire a maid. Putting off the risk and labour to another poorer woman.
Wanting something very badly and not being able to get it is not a novel human experience in my opinion.
And I empathize, doesn’t remove the ethical angle. People who need organ donors and have to be on a list where they have like 1% chance of getting one also want it very badly, paying someone to get it would still be unethical.
Ebose
I think the conversation on it being antifeminist or unethical is rooted in how it is practiced.
If a woman is comfortable being a surrogate and gets paid well and taken care of in the process, that’s not a problem.
I suggest there should be laws to protect the women and even the persons seeking a surrogate. I suggest there should be systems to ensure that the surrogate is not a mule and should not be mistreated and should not be abandoned with the baby. Also the surrogate should understand that upon the birth of the child, it is not hers and she should not lay claim to it.
August
What happens if the baby dies?
My sister had a stillbirth last year and I know how traumatic that was for me not to talk of her, she had preeclampsia, was in the hospital on bed rest for a month plus and her baby still died. What happens if the surrogate miscarries or has a stillbirth?
Gladys
I am pro surrogacy…because it’s helping someone achieve a dream. But one shouldn’t be forced or abused for it – care for the surrogate duly and under mutual consented agreements and appropriate settlement.
Ayomide
Most pro-surrogacy arguments often center the infertile couple—particularly the woman who desperately wants to be a mother. What that framing erases is the person who actually carries the pregnancy. In Nigeria that’s almost always a girl or a young, impoverished woman. Agencies deliberately recruit students and low-income women because “youth = higher fertility.”
I’ve carried two children. Seven years after my first, my knees are shot, my back aches daily, and by many standards I’m one of the lucky ones. Pregnancy permanently alters the mind and body; yet Nigerian surrogate mums walk away with no long-term health cover or insurance.
Surrogacy here also sends a toxic message: if you’re wealthy you can simply outsource pregnancy, buy a baby and a body to produce it.
Add our legal vacuum. Nigeria has no comprehensive surrogacy law, no enforceable protections, no clear recourse when things go wrong. Agencies charge millions of naira while the surrogate herself may receive as little as ₦200,000 (~US $100+ at today’s rates). That is exploitation, not empowerment.
Until surrogates negotiate from real power; protected by robust legal, medical and financial safeguards, commercial/altruistic surrogacy in Nigeria is ethically indefensible.
Families can still grow through genuine adoption, kinship care and community fostering, options that don’t monetize pregnancy or the bodies of poor women and girls.
Angel Nduka-Nwosu is a writer, journalist and editor. She moonlights occasionally as a podcaster on As Angel Was Sayin’. Catch her on all socials @asangelwassayin.