The Surrogate

“The Surrogate is a thrilling, high-stakes debut centering on a vulnerable newborn and two women who will do almost anything to claim her as their daughter. With a collection of vividly rendered characters, this twisty tale will leave you thinking about the true meaning of motherhood long after you turn the last page. I loved it!”—Patry Francis, bestselling author of All the Children Are Home Ruth is a no-nonsense fortysomething journalist from the Midwest, desperate for a child with her new husband, Hal. Their hope rests with Cally, a nineteen-year- old who wants to go to college—but doesn’t have the cash. The arrangement seems perfect for everyone. But within a day of the baby’s birth, Cally has a change of heart—and engineers a harrowing escape from the hospital with the newborn. When Ruth and Hal discover that Cally and their daughter are gone, a whole series of doubts and secrets is revealed, and the difference between right and wrong is no longer clear. Set in the vast, sparsely populated upper reaches of northern Minnesota in the middle of winter, The Surrogate follows Ruth, Hal, Cally, through a maze of thought-provoking questions about the nature of family, love, and relationships: What would you do for your partner, when the going gets tough? How much is a pregnancy “worth”? And who, if anyone, “deserves” to be a mother?

This is an ethnography which probes the intimate experience of gestational surrogate motherhood. Teman shows how surrogates and intended mothers carefully negotiate their cooperative endeavour.

From the USA Today bestselling author of The Sister and The Gift, this is an unputdownable psychological thriller which asks how far we will go to create our perfect family. Kat and her husband Nick have tried everything to become parents, and are on the point of giving up. Then a chance encounter with Kat's childhood friend Lisa gives Kat and Nick one last chance to achieve their dream. But Kat and Lisa's history hides dark secrets. And there is more to Lisa than meets the eye. As dangerous cracks start to appear in Kat's perfect picture of happily-ever-after, she realizes that she must face her fear of the past to save her family...

To a penniless twenty-year-old like Jamie Long, surrogate motherhood seemed both an act of altruism and a financial opportunity. But once pregnant and under contract to Amanda Hartmann, the head of a famous evangelical family, Jamie realizes that she's getting more than she bargained for. Whisked away to the vast, isolated family ranch, she's closely supervised and carefully cut off from the outside world. She learns the family's dark secrets -- and sees the enormity of their ruthlessness. When Jamie hears Amanda's plan to claim the baby as her natural-born child, she begins to suspect that her own life is in danger and resolves to flee. Alone with a tiny newborn, she calls on the one man in the world she can trust -- her high school crush, Joe Brammer. Their love unites them in a struggle to escape, and soon enough their flight becomes a fight for their lives. Brilliantly weaving some of today's most controversial social issues into a captivating page-turner, The Surrogate is Judith Henry Wall's greatest triumph to date.

Computer simulation experiments are essential to modern scientific discovery, whether that be in physics, chemistry, biology, epidemiology, ecology, engineering, etc. Surrogates are meta-models of computer simulations, used to solve mathematical models that are too intricate to be worked by hand. Gaussian process (GP) regression is a supremely flexible tool for the analysis of computer simulation experiments. This book presents an applied introduction to GP regression for modelling and optimization of computer simulation experiments. Features: • Emphasis on methods, applications, and reproducibility. • R code is integrated throughout for application of the methods. • Includes more than 200 full colour figures. • Includes many exercises to supplement understanding, with separate solutions available from the author. • Supported by a website with full code available to reproduce all methods and examples. The book is primarily designed as a textbook for postgraduate students studying GP regression from mathematics, statistics, computer science, and engineering. Given the breadth of examples, it could also be used by researchers from these fields, as well as from economics, life science, social science, etc.

Wild child lingerie store owner Lucy Hamilton is a happily confirmed bachelorette. As far as she's concerned, men are something best enjoyed in small doses, never to be allowed too close. Then Lucy's mother tells her Aunt Bev that Lucy has eloped and is married—a tiny lie only meant to appease the dying woman...until Aunt Bev miraculously recovers. Now Lucy needs to find a "husband" for an upcoming family wedding, and fast. Fortunately, Lucy's ridiculously hot, ridiculously straitlaced new accountant Dex Levian is willing to be her stand-in spouse for the weekend. And that's when the trouble really begins. For starters, Dex's "involvement" with a client?no matter how irresistible?might ruin a merger he hopes will make his career. Worse still, the chemistry between Dex and Lucy is more than convincing?it's sizzling. But for Lucy, falling for her fake new husband is the most dangerous thing she can do... Each book in the Hamilton Sisters series is a standalone story that can be enjoyed out of order. Series Order: Book #1 The Surrogate Husband Book #2 The Best Man’s Proposal

While the practice of surrogacy has existed for millennia, new fertility technologies have allowed women to act as gestational surrogates, carrying children that are not genetically their own. While some women volunteer to act as gestational surrogates for friends or family members, others get paid for performing this service. The first ethnographic study of gestational surrogacy in the United States, Labor of Love examines the conflicted attitudes that emerge when the ostensibly priceless act of bringing a child into the world becomes a paid occupation. Heather Jacobson interviews not only surrogate mothers, but also their family members, the intended parents who employ surrogates, and the various professionals who work to facilitate the process. Seeking to understand how gestational surrogates perceive their vocation, she discovers that many regard surrogacy as a calling, but are reluctant to describe it as a job. In the process, Jacobson dissects the complex set of social attitudes underlying this resistance toward conceiving of pregnancy as a form of employment. Through her extensive field research, Jacobson gives readers a firsthand look at the many challenges faced by gestational surrogates, who deal with complicated medical procedures, delicate work-family balances, and tricky social dynamics. Yet Labor of Love also demonstrates the extent to which advances in reproductive technology are affecting all Americans, changing how we think about maternity, family, and the labor involved in giving birth. For more, visit http://www.heatherjacobsononline.com/

Carver's internationally bestselling debut thriller features a very different kind of serial killer. A shocking double-murder scene greets Detective Inspector Philip Brennan when he is called to a flat in Colchester. Two women are viciously cut open and lying spread-eagled, one tied to the bed, one on the floor. The woman on the bed has had her stomach cut into and her unborn child is missing. But this is the third time Phil and his team have seen such an atrocity. Two other pregnant women have been killed in this way and their babies taken from them. No one can imagine what sort of person would want to commit such horrible crimes. When psychologist Marina Esposito is brought in, Phil has to put aside his feelings about their shared past and get on with the job. But can they find the killer before another woman is targeted?

Where pregnancy is concerned, let every pregnancy be for everyone. Let us overthrow, in short, the “family” The surrogacy industry is estimated to be worth over $1 billion a year, and many of its surrogates around the world work in terrible conditions—deception, wage-stealing and money skimming are rife; adequate medical care is horrifyingly absent; and informed consent is depressingly rare. In Full Surrogacy Now, Sophie Lewis brings a fresh and unique perspective to the topic. Often, we think of surrogacy as the problem, but, Full Surrogacy Now argues, we need more surrogacy, not less! Rather than looking at surrogacy through a legal lens, Lewis argues that the needs and protection of surrogates should be put front and center. Their relationship to the babies they gestate must be rethought, as part of a move to recognize that reproduction is productive work. Only then can we begin to break down our assumptions that children “belong” to those whose genetics they share. Taking collective responsibility for children would radically transform our notions of kinship, helping us to see that it always takes a village to make a baby.

The complexity of Surrogacy is arguably made even more so by the very nature of it being a decision many families reach due to the greatest of emotional challenges. There are so many opportunities for things to go wrong, but also the greatest of happy outcomes for so many families too. As a specialist surrogacy lawyer and a surrogate in 2018, Sarah Jefford has observed many surrogacy teams both flourish and struggle, and that has led to this very important book. In order to maximise every potential for things to go well for both intended parents and surrogate mothers, we need to make informed decisions that protect the interests of everyone involved, but most importantly that are in the best interests of the children - those who are already here, and those who will be in the future. If you want to know answers to the questions of how does surrogacy work, and the surrogate mother process, then this book will be your best place to start. But keep it handy throughout the entire process so that as your journey progresses, you will be able to understand the many aspects of surrogate pregnancy, intended parents roles, and each other's vital roles in creating a family together.