"I'll be there for you..."

This question really leads me to think of the late, great television show Friends.  Phoebe decides that she wants to help her brother and his wife have a child.  So the sperm and egg are of no genetic relation to Phoebe, expect for the fact that she's the babies' aunt.  This seems to work out all nice, as things usually work out on television.  But is this reality?  From here, I did a little google research.  Surrogacy-eggdonation.com says that the intended/client family can "petition the court to change the birth certificate; this modified birth certificate reflects the correct parentage of the child."  But this is only alright in "surrogate-friendly states" such as California, Texas, Illinois, Minnesota and Florida.

This leads me to a couple of conclusions:

1. Out of the 50 states in the union, only 6 are "surrogate-friendly states"; that is 44 states that do not allow legal surrogacy.

2. After the child is born, there are some legal battles that need to be fought.  Since the surrogate mother is technically the "mother" of the child, then she is on the birth certificate and has some legal rights over the child, until this is changed.

3. Even if the above things are decided on, we cannot forget that we are dealing with human beings who have ever-changing emotions.  God knows what could happen during the process or even after the child is born that could throw a monkey-wrench into the works.

It seems that paid surrogacy is somewhat legal but is all together a messy situation.  If I personally had to vote for/against a surrogacy law, I would vote for it, but the law would detail a strict contract that needed to be signed by all parties involved.  A woman does have the right to decide what she does and does not want to do with her body; if she wants to help a family grow, then she should have the right and ability to do so.  All in all, I guess this is why not every couple gets married and thinks, "Today, we'll pick out our china set and tomorrow we'll pick out a surrogate mother."