All entries on Feminist Legal Clinic’s News Digest Blog are extracts from news articles and other publications, with the source available at the link at the bottom. The content is not originally generated by Feminist Legal Clinic and does not necessarily reflect our views.
Surrogacy is a growing industry and trend. But there are very real ethical concerns that come with it.
There are two types of surrogacy: traditional and gestational. With the first, the surrogate donates her egg, which is joined with the father’s sperm via IUI, or intrauterine insemination. The surrogate is the legal mother until parental rights are terminated. With gestational, IVF occurs first, and the embryo is placed in the surrogate to carry. She does not have parental rights. In both these scenarios, a woman carries a child through all stages of pregnancy and then gives the baby away. It is not dramatic to say the child is forcibly separated from his or her mother and placed in the arms of another on purpose. It is difficult to express just how unique the bond is between mother and child. Carrying a baby in the womb is a beautiful, sometimes difficult experience that can’t be described. There is a reason mothers have a special bond with their children in a way fathers can’t and don’t. As a mother myself, the idea of giving away a baby that was nourished by and grown in my own body is a horrifying prospect. The immediate post-birth need for connection, skin-to-skin contact, and voice recognition outside the womb is real, to say nothing of the child’s need for their mother beyond delivery day.
While international adoptions are reportedly decreasing, the surrogacy industry is booming. According to CNBC, “The global commercial surrogacy industry grew to an estimated $14 billion in 2022. By 2032, that figure is forecast to rise to $129 billion.” Women from poorer countries who are in dire financial straits see carrying children for wealthier, Western couples as a way to improve their situations. This is the productization of pregnancy and parenthood.
Surrogacy will only grow in popularity as maternal age continues to climb and priorities shift. That makes it all the more important to talk about the downsides to what is so often presented as an unquestioned good. Reducing pregnancy to buyers, sellers, and multiple rounds of human life is not actually progress.