According to the NY Post there is a growing trend of people launching GoFundMe campaigns for help purchasing their future children.

GoFundMe reports that the total value of donations made to people seeking IVF funding in its “Babies, Kids and Family” category worldwide stands at $1.1 million since its 2010 launch. And those numbers are growing: The amount donated between January and July 2014 is already a third higher than that collected for the entirety of 2013.

The Post highlighted two such campaigns specifically. And I couldn’t help noticing something particularly troubling on the page for for one of those campaigns.

Sometimes people will attach prizes to certain dollar amounts as incentives for people to donate. Understandable. But this??

$100 gets you two free hours with the babies (who don’t even exist yet)! Something’s terribly wrong with this picture.

If that’s not treating children like objects/products — before they even exist — I don’t know what is.

I think the CBC’s Jennifer Lahl, quoted in the Post, has it right. There’s something quite tacky and tasteless about asking friends, family and strangers to help you exploit women and buy children.