As I sat in my last lecture for my Legal Studies class: Sex and Reproduction, I was thinking of all the new material I had learned regarding surrogacy. So why not talk a little bit about it. There three different types of surrogate mothers:
- Genetic surrogacy or partial surrogacy: This is the most common type of surrogacy. Here the egg of the surrogate mother is fertilized by the commissioning male's sperm. In this way the surrogate mother is the biological mother of the child she carries.
- Total surrogacy: Here the surrogate mother's egg is fertilized with the sperm of a donor - not the male part of the c partum ommissioning couple.
- Gestatory surrogacy or full surrogacy: Here the commissioning couple's egg and sperm have gone through in vitro fertilization and the surrogate mother is not genetically linked to the child.
To begin, who really benefits from surrogacy? In my opinion, it is the intended parents. This can either be a good thing or a bad thing, depending on how one looks at it. Although there is always debate on this issue, i will discuss one of the many debates: taking advantage of the poor to obtain a baby. Many times women who seek for surrogate mothers are wealthy women. And although hiring surrogate mothers to carry babies is illegal, most of the times, if not all of the times, women who are hired to carry the babies are women who are poor and do it for the money. The rich are exploiting the poor!
I find this really interesting because although this is meant to help both parties, the wealthy get a baby and the poor receive money for their services, this is a big issue, because there are times when poor women have to do this because they really do need money and not because they are 100% sure they want to carry someone else's baby. there have been cases where surrogate mothers get attached to the baby, that eventually they do not want to give it up and if they do they suffer from serious effects after giving birth.
Also, because it is more expensive to hire surrogate mothers in the United States there is this argument that third world women are being exploited as well and treated like baby Machines. Paid surrogacy in India, for example is legal and more women are willing to get hired, and their services are used more often because it is cheaper.
Finally, another issues with surrogacy is that children are becoming more of a commodity, parents are designing their child, choosing from a list to see what traits they want their child to have, ect. One problem with this is that because surrogacy is becoming more popular, children in foster care are not being adopted, and their stay period is becoming longer. There are so many children who need a home, so instead of looking for a surrogate mother to carry a baby, adoption should be a primary option for having a child. If all fails surrogacy should be their last resource.
I had never viewed the idea of surrogacy in this light. I had always viewed it as this amazing possibility for women to have children. Learning about how the poor may be exploited through this, it makes me think of the “poverty business.” The way Liz had explained it also made it seem like a “poverty business” when she refers to terms like commodity and money (cheaper, rich, etc.) It would be interesting to look up what types of interventions or laws have been in place to regulate surrogacy especially in third world countries. Also, what would be interesting is if these women are poor, under their conditions how are they able to support the finances and other burdens of being pregnant. Would she not be able to work? And what health services would she have available when she gives birth and if there is complications what would that mean for her family?
ReplyDeleteI agree with your statements and perspective on surrogacy. Personally, I cannot find any justice in human desires to manipulate human lives. And, the potential harms that would be placed on the unborn ones just seem to be horrific. However, since the water is already spilled and surrogacy is introduced to the market, I find it necessary to have proper regulations strictly reinforced for further harms. It is very unfortunate to find people who are willing to degrade the value of birth and almost regard them as economic goods...things that humans could do..
ReplyDeleteI totally agree with what you wrote, Lizbeth. This idea of rich parents benefiting from this surrogate relationship with poor women is especially interesting/horrifying if we think of it in terms of body politics. In the relationship of surrogacy, wealthy people are literally paying poor women for their bodies. It's like a rental agreement where they own them for a certain amount of time. I think I once read an article about parents suing their surrogate before for not taking good enough care of her body and their unborn child. I also know that surrogate mothers have to take a lot of hormone injections if they are doing full surrogacy (maybe the other two as well, I'm not sure), so she also has to experience that discomfort on top of just being pregnant. Thanks for sharing and provoking us to think of ways that rich folks depend on poor folks.
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