How do Dutch adults think about the social and genetic aspects of surrogacy? A nationally representative study about Dutch adults’ attitudes: LGBTQIA+ Research Day 2023

Surrogacy has become a viable way of family formation for intended parents. Yet, little is known about attitudes towards surrogacy in the Netherlands, even though attitudes are related to the overall well-being of these families. This study sets out to understand the societal acceptance of surrogacy arrangements by different family formations (cis male-male, cis female-male, and couples where one person is transgender) in the Dutch population. We explore the role of a genetic bond and social bond between the intended parents and the child, the surrogate and the parents, and an oocyte donor and the parents for the level of acceptance. Our results can contribute to evidence-based counselling for intended parents and surrogates. This study employs a factorial survey design to measure and explain attitudes toward different types and surrogacy arrangements in the Netherlands. We designed a questionnaire accompanied by vignettes tailored to the Dutch context. We distributed this questionnaire within the LISS panel (N=1039), an anonymized panel representative of the general Dutch population based on a probability sample of households drawn from the population register by Statistics Netherlands. We performed a multilevel regression analysis with the level of support as the dependent variable and family formation, and genetic as well as social bonds with the surrogate and oocyte donors as predictors. Preliminary analyses show that male-male and transgender parents are less accepted than cis male-female parents. Surrogacy is also more accepted when an oocyte donor has a genetic bond with the parents, but less accepted when she has a social bond with the parents. No effects were found for social and genetic bonds between surrogates and parents. Acceptance of surrogacy depends on family formation and social and genetic bonds between oocyte donors and parents. It does not depend on social and genetic bonds between surrogates and parents.