“I felt like it was such a transactional experience,” Khloe Kardashian said on Season 3 of The Kardashians. “It’s not about [the baby]. I wish someone was honest about surrogacy and the difference of it.”

Whether it is gestational surrogacy — in which the surrogate has no genetic relationship to the child — or traditional surrogacy, the practice is severely unregulated. Surrogacy produces over 3,000 births annually and is not subject to any strict federal laws. All regulation resides with the states and is implemented through contracts drafted by lawyers who help intended parents and surrogates agree on matters such as parental rights, surrogate compensation, and the relationship between the surrogate and child after birth.