High-tech surrogacy is when a woman (the surrogate) carries a child for someone else (the intended parents or intended parent). This might be because someone is unable to get pregnant or carry a pregnancy to term.
In high-tech surrogacy, the pregnancy is created with the intended mother's egg or an egg donor's egg. Therefore, the surrogate is not the child's genetic parent. The egg is fertilised in a lab with the intended father's sperm. The embryo is subsequently transferred to the surrogate's uterus. After the birth, the intended parent(s) take over caring for the child.
High-tech surrogacy is also known as:
To find out more about surrogacy, please go to: What is surrogacy? (in Dutch)
At the current time, there are two clinics in the Netherlands where you can go for high-tech surrogacy. To find out more about treatment at these clinics, please consult their websites:
You should prepare carefully for surrogacy. This requires a great deal of effort on the part of the intended parents, the surrogate and the egg donor, if there is one. The child's interests should always be paramount. This is true for all forms of surrogacy. In cases of high-tech surrogacy, counselling will be organised in part through the fertility clinic.
For more information about preparation, please see:
Consult a lawyer specialised in surrogacy during these preparations. Do this before (devloping embryo's) getting pregnant. Make sure that everyone is properly informed and understands what's entailed in transferring legal parenthood to the intended parent(s). It's important that everyone knows their rights and responsibilities.
The intended parents, the surrogate and the donor, if there is one, each need to have their own lawyer. These lawyers help you lay down every detail in a clearly written surrogacy agreement. You should only try to get pregnant once everyone has signed the surrogacy agreement.
The journey doesn't end once a child is born with a surrogate's assistance and parenthood has been transferred to the intended parent(s). The surrogate and her family, and possibly a donor and hers, are all part of your child's origins. As such, they're also part of your family.
You need to think about how the child can shape its bond with the surrogate and her family and possibly a donor and her family too.
For further information about the importance of good attachment for the child, please see:
Another form of surrogacy is low-tech surrogacy. In low-tech surrogacy the surrogate gets pregnant with her own egg. Therefore, the surrogate is the child's genetic parent. A clinic is rarely needed for this. Fertilisation can occur through (self-)insemination with the intended father's sperm.
The preparation for both low-tech and high-tech surrogacy is the same.
The medical risks associated with pregrancy and birth are different for high-tech and low-tech surrogacy.
You can find stories about the experiences with high-tech surrogacy of intended parents, surrogates and children in our knowledge bank.
Watch the video's with the stories of (all in Dutch):
Read the stories of (all in Diuch):
sample articles from the knowledge bank (all in Dutch):
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