Must read from Debra Saunders in response to an article about a Bay Area couple who paid an Indian woman to carry their child:
I don’t think they’re bad people. I think the Kowalskis represent a prevalent view in American society – that when affluent childless couples want to have a baby, they have a right to have a baby, indeed, the exact baby they choose. If their decision risks the health of poor women, well, that’s OK, because the couple is acting out of love.
And if they sign a contract that turns a desperate woman into a mule who carries a child at the will of others? That’s OK too, because the couple paid good money that will help the poor woman’s family.
And if the poor woman is torn apart because she has bonded with the baby inside her? Doesn’t matter, the mule signed a contract.
The Kowalskis aren’t bad people. They’re decent people who live in a bad culture that tells them that outsourcing the gestation of their test-tube babies is a good thing. It’s a win-win.
3 Comments on “Outsourcing Pregnancy Isn’t Fair”
The key phrase that stood out to me was “because the couple is acting out of love.” Our society as a whole does not understand what that word means. A misunderstanding of “love” seems to be at the root of all the major issues, from homosexual relationships to contraception to IVF.
Whoa, whoa, whoa. You can’t tell me that you’re in support of surrogate mothers claiming the child for their own once the pregnancy is done when it isn’t even their baby. I don’t get what you’re saying. I agree that only healthy women should be surrogate mothers so they have little risk of complications, but what? Would it make you feel better if the surrogate mother was rich? There are women who enjoy being pregnant.
Um, no. It would make me feel better if we didn’t use women as baby factories or hardware stores for spare baby-making parts — at all. Ever.