CGS-authored

More than 20 years ago, a bitter custody battle over a child known as Baby M made national headlines, ushering into public consciousness the sensational novelty of surrogate motherhood and the tangled ethical dilemma it can pose.

A storm of debate dragged on for two years, ending in a New Jersey court's decision to give custody to the baby's father, William Stern, with visitation rights granted to Mary Beth Whitehead, the surrogate and biological mother by artificial insemination who reneged on the contract after giving birth.

So many years after the infamous case was put to rest - with the child at the center of it all, Melissa Stern, all grown up and a senior in college - the practice of surrogacy has emerged again as a media preoccupation. But in a whole new way.

"It's really resurfaced in the media over the last year, in a big way," says Marcy Darnovsky, associate director of the Center for Genetics and Society in Oakland, Calif. "In this country, surrogacy is now old hat. So unless there's a scandal or a celebrity...