Definition

Surrogacy is an arrangement whereby a woman agrees to become pregnant for the purpose of gestating and giving birth to a child for others to raise. She may be the child's genetic mother (the more traditional form of surrogacy) or she may be implanted with someone else's fertilized egg (gestational surrogacy).
The word surrogate, from Latin surrogatus (substituted), means appointed to act in the place of. The existence of the concept of one woman bearing a child for another dates back to the Old Testament, when Hagar, the maidservant of Sarah, lies with Abraham to bear a child for her infertile mistress.