Strange Foes: Traditional 'Feminist' Condemnation of Surrogacy
To sum up their slippery slope argument against surrogacy (and other forms of third-party assisted reproduction), there are two main bones of contention. First: using a surrogate puts the surrogate in a position of being dominated and - especially in surrogacy where financial compensation is involved - may encourage women to "sell their bodies" simply to make some extra cash; Second: the woman turning to a surrogate (they do not address the concept of single or gay men using a surrogate to become fathers) to overcome her infertility is too caught up in society's expectations that she MUST be a mother to be a full woman, and, basically, she should just get over it.
What a bunch of baloney.
The second point is by far the easiest to see the false logic in. If a woman decides she wants to be a mother and finds nature is not cooperating, she should just suck it up and move on?? Yet if another woman decides she does not want to be a mother yet finds nature does not cooperate in the form of an unplanned pregnancy, she should have the right to terminate that pregnancy, because she should have the final say over her reproductive health? And this is supposed to make sense?? (For the record, I believe in BOTH statements - remember my confusion over whether to call myself a feminist or not???) If feminist thought is that a woman should have total control over her reproductive decision making, how can the same feminists decree that the choice to have a child is the wrong one? Should a woman feel compelled to turn to surrogacy if she has on inclination to be a mother? Of course not! But if she does feel that calling, who is to decide she should just ignore it, any more than she should ignore a calling to be a lawyer if that were her choice?
The first point - the potential for 'abuse' of the surrogate - is a little harder to argue because in some cases, I agree. If a woman feels compelled to enter into a surrogacy agreement simply because she's financially needy, there is a disaster waiting to happen. But to go from "there is a potential for abuse" to "this is an evil institution that must be done away with" is a huge leap. In some marriages, there is domestic abuse; in some cars, there are drunk
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