Surrogacy – a crust of happiness over a stew of corruption and exploitation
by Michael Cook, Mercator:
“Lily Collins welcomes her first baby, while her husband shuts down haters criticising surrogacy journey.” I didn’t know who Lily Collins is either, but this week’s headline in Cosmopolitan suggests that she is someone famous.
And she and Charlie were delighted with their bundle of joy. Their Instagram message read: “Welcome to the center of our world Tove Jane McDowell. Words will never express our endless gratitude for our incredible surrogate and everyone who helped us along the way. We love you to the moon and back again.”
That’s the argument for surrogacy in a fluffy pink nutshell. The parents are over the moon; the surrogate is happy; a baby has loving parents; critics are haters. What’s not to like?
Nothing, says The Economist, also in the past week. It profiled a couple who had hired a surrogate mother and commented: “Acts of kindness, such as hers, ought to be celebrated; in their own small way they each increase the sum of joy in the world by incubating children for families that, for various reasons, can’t do so themselves.”
As usual, The Economist – like most supporters of legalising surrogacy – did not inquire into the rights of the child. In this case, the commissioning couple was gay, so the child will grow up without a mother. It will never know the history of its biological parents. It will not know nothing about its medical background.
Nor did it inquire into the background of the surrogate mother. Why did she sell her body? Did she mind being excluded from the life of the child she bore for nine months?