This ABC News story reports on the increasing number of military wives who are turning to surrogacy as a way of supplementing their husbands’ salaries – sometimes even doubling them with just one pregnancy. The story is from 2010, but I can’t imagine things have changed a whole lot since then (and if they have, they’ve probably only gotten worse).
A few important takeaways:
–One of the women is unapologetic about the fact that she did not tell her primary doctors that she was pregnant with another woman’s child and that, as a result, the health insurance she gets from the U.S. Military – TriCare, paid for by the taxpayers – foot the bill for her prenatal and delivery costs. And she’s not the only one who does this. TriCare issued a statement to ABC News saying that it has the right to recover funds that were misused, but, according to ABC, they don’t generally go after claims that they were used for surrogacy because, to use Elizabeth Vargas’ words, it’s “small peanuts” to them, amounting to “only” about $5-10,000. Well, TriCare, I don’t care how much it is, I don’t want to pay anything for it and I know a lot of other taxpayers who would be outraged to know that this is going on!
–According to Wendy Naugle of Glamour Magazine, surrogate agencies are actually targeting military families because they have a “sense of duty” and are generally more compassionate and want to help women in need. The motives, they say, are mixed – “it’s love and it’s money.” See my article: Porn Not the Only Industry Commodifying Women
–One of the women featured was a surrogate FOUR times. As shocking as that sounds, she’s actually not the most prolific surrogate. That award might go to ‘Super Surrogate’ Meredith Olafson who has just ‘retired’ after bearing 11 children for other people and 4 for herself and her husband. WHAT!?
With the news of Ms. Olafson’s retirement and the rise in military wives choosing surrogacy as a way of earning extra family income, BioEdge brings up an article in the leading journal Bioethics written by two New Zealand bioethicists suggesting that surrogate motherhood should be treated as a profession. That way, they say, the women can be both adequately compensated and protected by government regulators.
On that note, writing at CMR yesterday, Rebecca Taylor encouraged everyone to pray that God will reverse the total disregard for the sanctity of human life that is prevalent in IVF clinics and biotech labs around the world:
Without earnest and fervent prayer, the mass production and commodification of innocent human life will continue and expand.
A friend of mine told me that before she read my work, she just used to pray for and end to abortion and euthanasia. Now she realizes how much bigger the problem is and how much greater her prayers need to be.
So I ask you to pray not just for an end to abortion and euthanasia, but also for an end to the mass creation, destruction and manipulation of human life in the earliest stages. Pray for a change in the hearts and minds of our society away from the utilitarian perspective that is dominating our culture. Pray for conscience protections for medical professionals, not only so these healers will not be coerced into abortion, sterilization, and assisted suicide, but so that, in the future, they will not be forced into performing reproductive cloning or unethical human enhancements. Pray for all those that work in biotech fields that they have the wisdom to know what is moral and immoral and the courage to stand for what is right.
Yes, let’s pray:
Dear Lord Jesus,
I offer you my mind, my heart and my prayers that the culture of death and its commercialization of and experimentation on your unborn children will cease. I pledge to be an advocate for the dignity and respect due all human life. Please send your Holy Spirit to enlighten, strengthen and inspire me, so that I may effectively defend your little ones.
Heart of Jesus, formed by the Holy Spirit in the womb of the Virgin Mary, have mercy on us.
Our Lady of Guadalupe, Protectress of the Unborn, Pray for Us.
Today is the feast of two of my very favorite saints. First, St. Gianna Molla, who sacrificed her own life to give birth to her forth child, Gianna Emanuela. Today also marks the 50th anniversary of her death. Her example of total self giving and abandonment to Divine Providence as well as the great love between her and her husband Pietro is needed in the world today like never before.
Today is also the feast of St. Louis Marie De Montfort, who literally wrote the book on proper Marian devotion. I cannot even begin to explain the impact his writing has had on my spiritual life.
My, but you are a curious bunch! Hello and welcome!!
In 1993, Robert Latimer murdered his 12-year old disabled daughter, gassing her to death with fumes from his truck. He was convicted of second degree murder with a mandatory sentence of life in prison with no chance of parole for at least 10 years. For nearly two decades, Robert has received widespread sympathy and support from the Canadian public as a loving father who finally put an end to his poor, suffering daughter’s misery. But, whose misery was he trying to end, really?
Responding to 
