Diagnosis of infertility, inability to conceive a child, has been surviving for a long time. Such notion as "surrogate motherhood", which today is condemned and criticized by some society representatives, originated long before our civilization, according to historical chronicles. In the 21st century religious representatives are the first to speak against surrogacy.
But going deeper into history, we can see that the Old Testament describes one of the surrogacy success stories. Wife of Abraham - Sarah was suffering from infertility. She invited her maid and allowed her to conceive and give birth to their child. It was believed in that time that if a woman cannot have a baby she could choose a woman to be a surrogate mother.
Chosen woman conceived a baby with husband of infertile woman and after baby’s birth she gave the baby back. In this case wife took the child as her own putting him on knees after birth and considering him as genetically relative. History has many cases when in different countries slaves or concubines played the role of a surrogate mother. In those times people, of course, used only "traditional surrogacy", i.e. genetic parents were father and surrogate mother as fertilization took place in a natural way.
Surrogacy was also described in the Sumerian Mesopotamia, XVIII century BC. Childbearing by another woman was even enshrined in the law code of Hammurabi King.
In ancient Egypt, pharaohs often hade recourse to slaves who became surrogates and gave birth to pharaohs children. It was not isolated case – surrogacy was widely practiced by rich and aristocratic families.
As one can see, surrogacy has deep roots and a long history. With the course of time and medicine development it has become possible to conduct surrogacy programs using biological material of infertile couple.