I don’t know what to think about surrogacy and am fortunate to have never had to consider it for myself. I was very struck by one surrogacy birth I know of, though.
A married mother-of-two offered to have a baby for her sister who couldn’t conceive, using the sister’s husband’s sperm. I’m assuming it was done under medical circumstances, although I don’t know that for sure. When the baby arrived, it was handed over to the sister, who of course was delighted and thrilled with her baby.
However, for about three months after the baby was born, whenever the birth mother was visiting the sister (they lived nearby) the baby would turn towards the birth mother whenever she spoke, seemingly drawn to listening to her voice. It only happened with the birth mother, the baby didn’t do with anyone else. I found that quite disturbing.
Also, during the pregnancy, the husband of the birth mother found it increasingly difficult to see his wife growing big with another man’s baby. He’d had his doubts about the whole idea in the first place but it was sold to him as making someone else happy so he had acquiesced. About six months after the baby was born the marriage broke down completely. Maybe there were issues anyway, and this was the straw that broke the camels back, but it resulted in a fractured relationship and two other children losing their father, as well as having a half-sibling they couldn’t grow up with. That’s a heavy price to pay, I think.