surrogacy is legal and common in iran, and monetary remuneration is practiced and allowed by religious authorities. laws dealing with surrogacy must deal with: enforceability of surrogacy agreements. in some jurisdictions, they are void or prohibited, and some jurisdictions distinguish between commercial and altruistic surrogacy. the different issues raised by traditional and gestational surrogacy. mechanisms for the legal recognition of the intended parents as the legal parents, either by pre-birth orders or by post-birth adoption. although laws differ widely from one jurisdiction to another, some generalizations are possible: the historical legal assumption has been that the woman giving birth to a child is that child's legal mother, and the only way for another woman to be recognized as the mother is through adoption (usually requiring the birth mother's formal abandonment of parental rights). even in jurisdictions that do not recognize surrogacy arrangements, if the potential adoptive parents and the birth mother proceed without any intervention from the government and do not change their mind along the way, they will likely be able to achieve the effects of surrogacy by having the gestational carrier give birth and then give the child up for private adoption to the intended parents. if the jurisdiction specifically bans surrogacy, however, and authorities find out about the arrangement, there may be financial and legal consequences for the parties involved. one jurisdiction (quebec) prevented the genetic mother's adoption of the child even though that left the child with no legal mother. some jurisdictions specifically prohibit only commercial and not altruistic surrogacy. even jurisdictions that do not prohibit surrogacy may rule that surrogacy contracts (commercial, altruistic, or both) are void. if the contract is either prohibited or void, then there is no recourse if one party to the agreement has a change of heart: if a surrogate changes her mind and decides to keep the child, the intended mother has no claim to the child even if it is her genetic offspring, and the couple cannot get back any money they may have paid the surrogate; if the intended parents change their mind and do not want the child after all, the surrogate cannot get any money to make up for the expenses, or any promised payment, and she will be left with legal custody of the child. jurisdictions that permit surrogacy sometimes offer a way for the intended mother, especially if she is also the genetic mother, to be recognized as the legal mother without going through the process of abandonment and adoption. often this is via a birth order in which a court rules on the legal parentage of a child. these orders usually require the consent of all parties involved, sometimes even including the husband of a married gestational surrogate. most jurisdictions provide for only a post-birth order, often out of an unwillingness to force the gestational carrier to give up parental rights if she changes her mind after the birth. a few jurisdictions do provide for pre-birth orders, generally only in cases when the gestational carrier is not genetically related to the expected child. some jurisdictions impose other requirements in order to issue birth orders: for example, that the intended parents be heterosexual and married to one another. jurisdictions that provide for pre-birth orders are also more likely to provide for some kind of enforcement of surrogacy contracts. citizenship the citizenship and legal status of the children resulting from surrogacy arrangements can be problematic. the hague conference permanent bureau identified the question of citizenship of these children as a "pressing problem" in the permanent bureau 2014 study (hague conference permanent bureau, 2014a: 84–94). according to u.s. department of state, bureau of consular affairs, for a child born abroad to be a u.s. citizen one or both of the child's genetic parents must be a u.s. citizen. in other words, the only way for a foreign born surrogate child to acquire u.s. citizenship automatically at birth is if they are the biological child of a u.s. citizen. furthermore, in some countries, the child will not be a citizen of the country in which they are born because the gestational carrier is not legally the parent of said child. this could result in a child being born without citizenship. ethical issues numerous ethical questions have been raised with regards to surrogacy. they generally stem from concerns relating to social justice, women's rights, child welfare, and bioethics. gestational carrier those who view surrogacy as a social justice issue argue that it leads to the exploitation of women in developing countries whose wombs are commodified to meet the reproductive needs of the more affluent. while opponents of this stance argue that surrogacy provides a much-needed source of revenue for women facing poverty in developing countries, others purport that the lack of legislation in such countries often leads to much of the profit accruing to middlemen and commercial agencies rather than the gestational carriers themselves. it has been argued that under laws of countries where surrogacy falls under the umbrella of adoption, commercial surrogacy can be considered problematic as payment for adoption is unethical, but not paying a gestational carrier for her service is a form of exploitation. both opponents and supporters of surrogacy have agreed that implementing international laws on surrogacy can limit the social justice issues that gestational carriers face in transnational surrogacy. other human rights activists express concern over the conditions under which gestational carriers are kept by surrogacy clinics which exercise much power and control over the process of surrogate pregnancy. isolated from friends and family and required to live in separate surrogacy hostels on the pretext of ensuring consistent prenatal care, it is argued that gestational carriers may face psychological challenges that cannot be offset by the (limited) economic benefits of surrogacy. other psychological issues are noted, such as the implications of gestational carriers emotionally detaching themselves from their babies in anticipation of birth departure. the relevance of a woman's consent in judging the ethical acceptability of surrogacy is another point of controversy within human rights circles. while some hold that any consensual process is not a human rights violation, other human rights activists argue that human rights are not just about survival but about human dignity and respect. thus, decisions cannot be defined as involving agency if they are driven by coercion, violence, or extreme poverty, which is often the case with women in developing countries who pursue surrogacy due to economic need or aggressive persuasion from their husbands. on the other end of the spectrum, it has been argued that bans on surrogacy are violations of human rights under the existing laws of the inter-american court of human rights reproductive rights landmark. some feminists have also argued that surrogacy is an assault to a woman's dignity and right to autonomy over her body. by degrading impoverished women to the mere status of “baby producers”, commercial surrogacy has been accused by feminists of commodifying women's bodies in a manner akin to prostitution. some feminists also express concerns over links between surrogacy and patriarchal expressions of domination as numerous reports have been cited of women in developing countries coerced into commercial surrogacy by their husbands wanting to "earn money off of their wives' bodies". supporters of surrogacy have argued to mandate education of gestational carriers regarding their rights and risks through the process in order to both rectify the ethical issues that arise and to enhance their autonomy. child those concerned with the rights of the child in the context of surrogacy reference issues related to identity and parenthood, abandonment and abuse, and child trafficking. it is argued that in commercial surrogacy, the rights of the child are often neglected as the baby becomes a mere commodity within an economic transaction of a good and a service. such opponents of surrogacy argue that transferring the duties of parenthood from the birthing mother to a contracting couple denies the child any claim to its “gestational carrier” and to its biological parents if the egg and/or sperm is/are not that of the contracting parents. in addition, they claim that the child has no right to information about any siblings he or she may have in the latter instance. the relevance of disclosing the use of surrogacy as an assisted reproductive technique to the child has also been argued to be important for both health risks and the rights of the child. religious issues