Fertility and Sterility On Air - Roundtable: Concurrent Surrogacy

Welcome to Fertility & Sterility Roundtable, hosted by Dr. Emily Barnard and Dr. Ben Peipert! Each week, we will host a discussion with the authors of "Views and Reviews" and "Fertile Battle" articles published in a recent issue of Fertility & Sterility.  Today, we will be discussing the Fertile Battle episode from the April 2026 edition of Fertility and Sterility entitled "Is Concurrent Gestational Surrogacy an Ethical Practice?" Concurrent surrogacy involves two gestational carriers being engaged simultaneously—or whose pregnancies overlap—to allow a single intended parent or couple to have children born without the usual spacing between births  Dr. Michelle Bayefsky is a second year Reproductive Endocrinology and Infertility fellow at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. She has written a book and more than 30 peer-reviewed papers on issues related to reproductive ethics and fertility preservation. She is currently a member of the ASRM Ethics Committee. For the purposes of this discussion, Dr. Bayefsky authored the Pro side of the argument that concurrent gestational surrogacy is an ethical practice.  Dr. Caroline Violette is a second year Reproductive Endocrinology & Infertility Fellow at Brown University. Prior to fellowship, Dr. Violette obtained her medical degree from Emory University School of Medicine and completed her residency in Obstetrics and Gynecology at the University of Southern California. Her research interests include oncofertility and addressing healthcare disparities related to access to fertility treatment in the United States. For the purposes of this discussion, Dr. Violette authored the "con" side of the argument that these concurrent surrogacy arrangements are unethical.  Dr. Arthur Caplan is a Professor and founding head of the Division of Medical Ethics at NYU School of Medicine in New York City. Dr. Caplan has served on a number of national and international committees, including chair of the Advisory Committee to the United Nations on Human Cloning, a member of the advisory committee to the International Olympic Committee on genetics and gene therapy, and co-director of the Joint Council of Europe/United Nations Study on Trafficking in Organs and Body Parts. He is the author or editor of thirty-five books and over 890 papers in peer reviewed journals. Dr. Caplan authored the pro side of the argument.  Read the Fertile Battle from Volume 125, Issue 4 p598-604 in the April 2026 issue View Fertility and Sterility at https://www.fertstert.org/