Jennifer Lahl for Public Discourse writes:
On April Fools’ Day 2018, a German LGBTI website came under attack for announcing the raffle of a surrogate mother in Thailand and an egg donor for a gay couple. The ‘package’ was said to be worth over $44,000 US. Immediately this raffle draw attention on Twitter, where it was criticized for being a “tasteless,” “racist,” “sexist,” and extremely unfunny attempt at an April Fools’ joke.
What is taking place here in the US is a state-by-state effort to pass legislation enabling commercial surrogacy. Internationally, efforts to legalize commercial surrogacy are underway in places like the Hague, the United Nations, and several national governments. One thing you should know for certain is that all of these efforts are carefully orchestrated—and well-funded—by the fertility industry, their lobbyists and attorneys, and gay surrogacy agencies like the one run by Sam Everingham, “Families through Surrogacy” or the group “men having babies.”
One of the first steps in combating surrogacy, particularly in the consumer-driven developed, western world is by exposing big fertility. Surrogacy is big business, raking in billions of dollars worldwide each year.
When there is money to be made—particularly in a field that claims to be self-regulated—there are always bad actors eager to cash in. Theresa Ericson, a California-based surrogacy attorney who was convicted and sent to prison for leading a baby-selling ring, called herself the “tip of the iceberg, when it comes to people abusing the system.”
So no, there is no debate taking place on the ethics of surrogacy. What is happening is that a few of us, woefully understaffed and underfunded, are taking on an industry similar to the likes of Big Tobacco or Big Pharma, David vs. Goliath style.
https://www.thepublicdiscourse.com/2018/04/21343/?
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