Surrogacy is a process whereby a woman who is not the mother of the child (known as a surrogate) agrees to carry the child for the child’s parents where it is not medically possible for the actual mother to conceive a child.
In many jurisdictions such as India and Ukraine, surrogacy is legal with the former being a main destination for commercial surrogacy.
In the United Kingdom, although surrogacy is a generally accepted and practiced concept, however, commercial surrogacy is prohibited by the Surrogacy Arrangements Act 1984.
In Malaysia, there is a vast debate on this issue and The National Council of Islamic Religious Affairs issued a fatwa (an Islamic religious ruling) in 2008 that bans surrogacy in Malaysia.
Although there are currently no other laws providing specifically for surrogacies in Malaysia besides the 2008 fatwa, a proposed statute, the Assisted Reproductive Technique Services Act, aimed at regulating reproductive technologies, including surrogacy arrangements, will be introduced in the Malaysian parliament soon.
