Should there be intensive background checks for surrogate mothers or for women prior to allowing them access to artificial insemination?

A woman I was well acquainted with was in both of those situations at different times. At roughly 20 years of age, she was selected to serve as a surrogate mother for a family in California, and there were several attempts which were not successful. At this time she had been diagnosed with Bipolar Disorder. This took place approximately twenty years ago.

Her condition continued to deteriorate, and she was hospitalized multiple times, being again diagnosed with Bipolar, and also Borderline Personality Disorder.

Subsequently, after giving birth to three children who were removed from her care by their fathers, she sought and received artificial insemination, stating to a party that she wanted to have a child that no one could take away from her. She was unsuccessful in becoming pregnant, fortunately, and when she consulted doctors it was discovered that she had ovarian cancer. Soon thereafter she took her life. This was about five years ago.

I was not privy to such details, but obviously, if there were checks, or psychological testing done, they couldn’t have been too thorough, because there was much medical history on her, and even acquaintances were able to discern that something wasn’t right with her.

Was this an isolated case? Do you think that there are more stringent investigations in place now for these medical procedures?