Pioneering surrogacy case tests local judiciary

Surrogacy-Gofhamodimo Sithole and Lekoko Baatweng with their lawyers at Court of Appeal.PIC: KAGISO ONKATSWITSE
Surrogacy-Gofhamodimo Sithole and Lekoko Baatweng with their lawyers at Court of Appeal.PIC: KAGISO ONKATSWITSE

Surrogacy, or the practice of a woman carrying a baby on behalf of a couple, is an internationally established even though it remains controversial in some cultures. The debate is now on local shores for the first time as a divorced couple fights over the fate of a frozen embryo at the Court of Appeal. Staff Writer, MPHO MOKWAPE reports

With many couples struggling to conceive, the evolution of medical science has come as a Godsend, providing many options and opportunities over and above adoption.

Surrogacy is the on the rise worldwide and recently the debate over the practice has engrossed public debate, via a case currently going through the judiciary. Surrogacy is an arrangement or agreement where a woman carries a pregnancy on behalf of a separate couple who are unable to have children on their own. The practice involves fertilising an egg outside the body or in vitro fertilisation, with the resultant embryo transferred to a surrogate being the woman who will carry the pregnancy.

Editor's Comment
The real test is in the doing, not the saying

“Injustice anywhere is a threatto justice everywhere.”— Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.We listened, and we want very much to believe him, but our belief will not be secured by fine speeches; it will be secured only by action.For far too long, there has been a suspicion amongst ordinary Batswana that the law has two faces; one for the ordinary man and woman struggling to make ends meet, and another, gentler face for the well-connected and the...

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