AN ARGUMENT AGAINST SURROGACY
P1. Surrogacy commoditizes children
P2. Anything which commoditizes children should be rejected
C. Therefore surrogacy should be rejected
CONSERVATIVE COMMENTARY
From Discussingmarriage.org
Third-party reproduction includes: (1) Sperm donation, a process where children are conceived using the sperm from a (typically anonymous) donor. This is an option that many lesbian couples pursue. (2) Egg donation, a process by which an egg from a (again, typically anonymous) donor is fertilized and then implanted in an otherwise infertile woman’s womb. (3) Surrogate motherhood, a process by which a woman conceives and bears a child with the intent of giving the child to someone else to raise (such as two men who cannot themselves bear children).
By facilitating the creation of a child for the sake of a third party, each of these methods has the potential to objectify children. To speak in economic terms, if the supply of children is philosophically separated from the demand, then there will automatically be created a market for children. Further, because third party reproduction is expensive, perverse market incentives can shift the attention of agencies and medical professionals away from the welfare of children and toward the prospective parents’ ability to pay.
https://discussingmarriage.org/the-argument-from-child-commodity/
Surrogacy experiences unique challenges when agreements are made between surrogates and intended parents such as:
- When the surrogate mother does not want to give up the baby
- When the biological father (sperm donor) wants parental rights
- When the baby is stranded without the intended parents
- When the surrogate mother has twins but only one baby was wanted
- When the baby is left stateless at birth
- When the intended parents are not able to adopt the baby
- When an intended father dies before the baby is born
- When the surrogate mother is also pregnant with her own baby
- When the intended parents split up before the baby is born
- When the intended parents want to abort the baby but the surrogate mother disagrees
- When the wrong sperm or eggs are used
EXTERNAL LINKS:
- Discussing Marriage – The Argument from Child Commodity
- Grace Melton and Melanie Israel – How Surrogacy Harms Women and Children