Survey of Japanese infertile couples' attitudes toward surrogacy

Aim. To clarify Japanese infertile couples' attitudes toward surrogacy, and analyse the results according to the contextual factors: ethical, social and medical aspects.

Methods. We performed a questionnaire survey anonymously on the attitude toward gestational surrogacy and traditional surrogacy in Japanese infertile couples (103 women and 60 men) between June and August 2000. We examined the relation between the acceptability of surrogacy and the background factors (age, type of procedure, the number of clinics visited, etc.), and also analysed the woman required as each type of surrogate mother whether the presence or absence of siblings in any of the infertile couple.

Results. The rates of using gestational and traditional surrogacy if they were necessary were 17% and 7% of women, 23% and 8% of men, respectively. ART group, ≥35 years of age group and ≤2 clinics visited group as a contextual factor influenced their affirmative determinants. Approximately 70% of the infertile couples preferred anonymity as a surrogate gestational mother. Regardless of whether each partner had a full sister, these tendencies were observed.

Conclusions. We found the contextual factors related to the acceptability of surrogacy. The ongoing deliberations toward surrogacy considering certain conditions of a concerned couple would be highly desirable.