Bearing Children for Others

[Pard]

Let me give you a basic hypothetical that happens often enough...

A married couple wants to have children but they cannot (for the sake of ruling out other options we will say that the mother cannot bear children conceived in any form. And for the sake of being completely thorough the father is also sterile) have children. This couple fights with this truth for a long time and it truly puts a strain on their marriage because both of them wanted kids their entire life and the reality looks like they shall never have children. They finally come to terms with this and their pastor directs them to a local adoption agency. They do not make the requirements and even if they did the waiting list is three years long.

They are friends with another couple who has children and who they often confide in. They all go to church together. The child-bearing couple discusses their friends' predicament and they truly see how this is effecting both their personal and social lives. They decide that they would help this couple in any way possible including having a child for them.

Is this OK? The Bible doesn't get into this much although it does delegate responsibility for children to the family in the case of the parents' deaths.

 

[handy]

Biblically, I can't see why it would be considered sinful or anything. Certainly adoption is OK and, we see God giving widows a chance to have children via Leverite marriage (where the brother of the dead husband impregnates the widow and the child is raised as the dead husband's child).

However, in the scenario you describe there are all kinds of emotional pitfall to watch out for, especially when the child is old enough to search after the birth parents.