Reviews for Is Surrogacy A Necessary Practice?

Reviews For: Is Surrogacy A Necessary Practice?

Tiefling
2007-11-19
ch 1,

abuseThat's an interesting topic.

"In sub-Saharan Africa, 15 million children are orphans. In Asia there are even more. While these children are living without a home, couples are paying a lot of money to take part in a practice called surrogacy."

It would be nice if more childless couples, or even childless single people adopted orphans instead of resorting to surrogacy, IVF or dangerous fertility treatments. However, as things stand, inter-country adoption is a very difficult and expensive process. A huge ammount of red tape, not to mention a great deal of money stands in the way of lots of people adopting. Many people who'd be willing to adopt can't afford it or are rejected when they apply (sometimes this rejection is for a good reason, like them not having enough money to support the child, other times it seems arbitrary). In such circumstances, surrogacy might seem an easier option. It's not surrogacy that's the problem, it's the legislation which makes the alternative so hard.

Also, people might feel that they would rather have their 'own', biological child than one not related to them. In surrogacy, they can have this, whereas in adoption they can't. It's not an idea I can personally relate to, but people feel what they feel. Having a child that is biologically your own will probably be easier to deal with as the child grows up because it will resemble its parents. Not everyone is willing to deal with constantly being asked why their child doesn't look like them, and the child will have to live with people asking why it doesn't look like Mum and Dad.

"Could they not find another job in the areas of sewing or arts that will not dampen their reputation, harm their marriages, and spend their life in the discomfort of constantly having children that are not theirs to own?"

Presumably they chose surrogacy because either they couldn't find another job, or the pay was better than for any of their other options. It's not a question of either/or anyway. A woman could be pregnant with a surrogate child while working another job for most, if not all of her pregnancy. More money will benefit both her and her family. I'm not saying it's not without drawbacks, just that it seems unfair to judge someone when you don't know their circumstances.

"Surrogate mothers are legally the birthing mother of the child. Due to this, surrogate mothers do not have to give the child that they birthed back to the couple they are working to please. In a similar way, because the infertile mother did not birth the child, she and her husband can decide that they do not want the child that they did not have. Fetal abnormality is also a possibility that is not expected. What happens when neither party wants to keep the abnormal child or the surrogate mother decides to end the pregnancy?"

These are all very good points.

"Nonetheless, it is still expensive."
Perhaps still less so than inter-country adoption. I have heard of that costing couples fifty thousand Australian dollars.

"With the practice becoming more common, it is feared that women that do not want to put their careers on hold will resort to it."

The way to combat that is, once again, better legislation, this time with regard to maternity leave, childcare etc. If it is made as easy for women to have both children and a career as it is for men, this would probably lead to more women having children younger and fewer fertility issues.

"Is Surrogacy A Necessary Practice?"

No, surrogacy isn't necessary, since it isn't necessary for any particular person to have children. The fate of the world doesn't hang on it, they won't die if they won't, they just *want* to.
Surrogacy isn't necessary. It is, however, something many people want. A better question would be "is surrogacy immoral?"

Many people want children very badly, and I can't see the practice stopping entirely, at least not until we develop artificial wombs and the technology is made cheap and freely available. Outlawing the practice won't stop it.

One more thing- you have only discussed incidents where surrogacy occurs for money. Sometimes no money changes hands at all. Sometimes women choose to bear surrogate children as a favour to a friend or relative. The same messy legal issues can arise, but it seems sad to stop someone from giving such a beautiful gift.

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