The Gift of Life (1982)
Genre : TV Movie, Drama
Runtime : 2H 0M
Director : Jerry London
Synopsis
A young woman is faced with local disapproval and strain on her marriage when she agrees to serve as a surrogate mother.
A surrogate mother harbors a deadly secret desire for a family of her own with the husband who is expecting to raise her child.
A successful, single businesswoman who dreams of having a baby discovers she is infertile and hires a working class woman to be her unlikely surrogate.
When young loner Anna is hired as the surrogate for Matt, a single man in his 40s, the two strangers come to realize this unexpected relationship will quickly challenge their perceptions of connection, boundaries and the particulars of love.
Two criminal drifters without sympathy get more than they bargained for after kidnapping and holding for ransom the surrogate mother of a powerful and shady man.
Khaila Richards, a crack-addicted single mother, accidentally leaves her baby in a dumpster while high and returns the next day in a panic to find he is missing. In reality, the baby has been adopted by a warm-hearted social worker, Margaret Lewin, and her husband, Charles. Years later, Khaila has gone through rehab and holds a steady job. After learning that her child is still alive, she challenges Margaret for the custody.
In a dystopicly polluted rightwing religious tyranny, a young woman is put in sexual slavery on account of her now rare fertility.
Louise and Kasper want to become parents, but Louise cannot have children. She seals a pact with her Romanian maid, Elena, to bear her child, but things don't turn out quite as planned...
An aspiring actress in a small town in Rajasthan agrees to bear a child for a visiting couple seeking a surrogate mother, but her experience takes an unexpected turn when they refuse to have the child anymore.
Widowed mother Mildred must suddenly redefine herself and find an outlet for her nurturing side when her adult daughter moves out of the family home. Though Mildred thinks she's found her purpose when her neighbor, overworked single mother Monica, asks her to look after her little boy, she has great difficulty learning to strike a healthy balance between giving selflessly to others and remembering to take care of herself.
A couple unable to naturally conceive recruit a young woman to act as their surrogate. She falls pregnant with their baby and moves into their home. But sweet Jennifer has a secret, and she soon traps the couple in a terrifying hell with little chance of escape.
Diane doesn't hesitate for a moment when her best friends, Thomas and Jacques, ask her to be their surrogate mother. It is in these hardly ideal circumstances that she becomes infatuated with Fabrizio.
Loic and Seb are a couple living in Paris's gay district, the Marais. Seb is the owner of the district's most trendy, chic and camp nightclub. It's a world devoid of judging eyes where the clientele can be themselves. Things are just terrific. What's more, Loic's dream of transmitting his heart and soul to another human being is about to come true: he's going to be a father. He gave his sperm. Things are just terrific. Marie Haguette, their accomplice, is offering them this gift, the most beautiful gift that two gay guys could receive: a baby! She's three-months pregnant, that dicey moment when things could go wrong... Maybe this is why Loic has morning sickness, contractions and cravings. Things are just terrific. Except for love, Love with a capital L of course, upsets the pie-cart. Marie falls madly in love with Charles, a wonderful stranger, but at least he's straight. What's more, he's coming to dinner tomorrow night. What should Loic and Seb do?
When Alice loses her baby in an act of violence, she learns she cannot have children on her own. She and her husband are overjoyed when they find a surrogate to give them the baby they've always wanted. But Alice's happiness soon turns to jealousy and a deadly rage, causing her to stop at nothing to get her baby.
Rajiv, a chronic bachelor and a business tycoon, decides to have a child. Annie, who has financial needs, agrees to help him and give birth to Rajiv's child through artificial insemination.
Melody, 28 years old, a confused child born under the name X, decides to rent out her body in order to get the money she needs to realize her dream: opening a hair-dressing salon. To do so, she accepts to carry the child of Emily, a rich English woman 48 years old who can no longer have children. To make sure everything goes well and keep an eye on her future child, Emily decides to welcome Melody into her home and stay by her side throughout the pregnancy. Although they first appear to come from completely different worlds, the two women end up adopting each other: Melody finds in Emily the mother she never had, and Emily sees in Melody the daughter she always wanted to have. Evidently, the bonds that emerge during this double maternity create all sorts of doubts and questions.
Lando Buzzanca plays a man desperate to father a male heir. However, his wife (Roseanne Podesta) is apparently barren. They decide to use a surrogate mother, which, since this was in the days before artificial insemination, means Buzzanca will have to impregnate the surrogate the "old-fashioned" way. After a mishap involving a VERY unattractive but fertile widow, Buzzanca sets his sights on young girl (Gloria Guida) at an orphanage for unwed mothers (who has already given an illegitimate child up for adoption). They hire her as a maid, but she is under the impression they're going to adopt her, leading to some quasi-incestual misunderstandings...
Tish Gray had a baby and gave it up for adoption. She is contacted by a second childless couple who want her to have the husband's baby because of the wife's inability to have children. She accepts but finds that knowing the parents, and developing a relationship with them for the entire pregnancy complicates the simple arrangement.
Danny, a Taiwanese-American man, and his partner Tate want to have a baby, but the complex world of international surrogacy is further complicated by Danny's well-meaning but extremely meddlesome mother.
A surrogate mother faces an uncertain future when the couple who hires her dies in an accident.