Simple English definitions for legal terms
Read a random definition: voluntas
A surrogate mother is a woman who carries a baby for someone else. Sometimes, a woman cannot have a baby on her own, so she asks another woman to help her. The surrogate mother agrees to carry the baby in her belly and give birth to it. She does not keep the baby after it is born. Instead, the baby goes to the person who asked for help. A surrogate mother can be the genetic mother (who provides the egg) or not.
Definition: A surrogate mother is a woman who carries out the gestational function and gives birth to a child for another person or couple. This is typically done on behalf of an infertile couple, and the surrogate mother relinquishes any parental rights she may have upon the birth of the child. A surrogate mother may or may not be the genetic mother of the child.
Examples:
These examples illustrate how a surrogate mother carries a child for someone else and then gives up any parental rights she may have had. The first example shows how a surrogate mother can help an infertile couple become parents, while the second example shows how a surrogate mother can help a family member who cannot conceive on her own.