I settled on this research topic by actually learning about the topic and learning how controversial it is and how it really is an extreme topic of conversation in the medical and legal field.  The research that I did for the ILP's allowed me to see how much the discussion of ethics was a main aspect in the discussion of why surrogate motherhood is as controversial as it is.  In research, I have learned that there are some surrogacy situations that result in the surrogate mother actually becoming attached to the child that she is carrying for someone else.  I also happened to learn that legally, even though the baby is biologically the child of the egg and sperm donor, the donors are not legally the parents of the baby to be born and the baby has to be adopted after birth in order to legally be considered their or his or her child.  Seeing how much controversy the legal aspect brings, further research reveals that there have actually been lawsuits between surrogate mothers and the party who used this surrogate mother in order to gain a child because the surrogate mother changes her mind about giving up the baby.  Another aspect that caused me to be interested is the fact that there are cases where the parents who needed the surrogate mother are no longer interested in receiving the child.  This incident may come about by the possibility of the child being mentally or physically disabled or if the couple changes their mind because of personal issues such as divorce or the loss of money.  In this case, the child would actually legally be left parentless.  I became interested in this topic by learning about it in my most recent Psychology course here at the university and how most of the general public really only hear about the success stories of surrogate motherhood.  I took interest because I did not know how much surrogacy had extreme ethical and legal cons to it.  I also took interest because in the world of surrogacy, it actually happens to affect more people than the surrogate mother and the people or person that is in need of the surrogate, especially if things do not go as planned or run smoothly.  I do not consider myself to be a stake holder in this topic because I do not think that it happens to affect me directly and I do not think it will be on a list of possible options for me unless I am unable to conceive my own children naturally.  I believe that this research question relates to my own personal values because it in a sense goes against what I believe in.  I have never experienced anyone in my family use surrogacy due to the unfortunate issue of not being able to conceive their own children naturally or because they just did not want to carry their own child.  Due to this, I have just always believed that naturally is the best way to do things without the interference of any new age technology.  Also, due to my faith I am a firm believer in "if it is meant to be then it shall happen."  Therefore, if you cannot conceive on your own, then maybe it is not meant for you and adoption could be a more ethically sound and legally safer alternative than the option of surrogacy. I do not think I came into this project with a strong opinion or point of view because I came into this project only with the knowledge that the world of surrogacy can actually get extremely ugly and it is more controversial that most people seem to know.  I think that I only started to develop my opinion against the topic when the research done revealed the actual ethics behind it and how it can really negatively affect the parties involved if the outcome of the surrogacy process is not one that is considered to be typically favored.  Seeing as how I do know that this topic is considered a controversial issue by many, I would hope to discover the severity of actual events and the not-so-pretty side of something that most people do not really take a second look at.  I also want to know where this practice is and is not legal and also maybe why and how the legality of surrogacy was determined in that state or country or other area. 

In this argument, I hope to accomplish proving that the process of surrogate motherhood goes against basic ethics and is extremely problematic because of all the things that can possibly go wrong and most importantly negatively affect the child involved.  I do believe that I can answer my research question in an eight to ten-page paper because of all the evidence in favor of being against surrogate motherhood and all the evidence I could use to support my claim.  Most people would agree with the practice of surrogate motherhood because it may give families that cannot conceive on their own because of physical damage to the uterus or the case of a homosexual couple the chance to experience parenthood if they make that choice to do so.  Definitely most people that disagree stand on the ethical and legal platform in saying that surrogate motherhood negatively impacts the ethical and legal aspects.  In my research I have found that some consider the process of surrogate motherhood to be nothing more than "baby selling" because of the money paid to the surrogate mother.  In some cases, the surrogate is considered to be nothing more than just a "mother-for-hire" because some surrogate mothers do indeed actually just sign up to be surrogates for the large cash reward that they will receive in the end instead doing it based off of actually having the genuine want to help a family or person that is in need of a baby.  I do think that my research question is straightforward enough to move toward a working thesis but I may have to change it to "how is surrogacy negative" in order to have a broader field of research rather than just basing it off of ethics. I think that my research question has a broad scope because it is not too specific and has a large discussion behind it for both sides of the argument which makes it both complex and definitely controversial.
