Strange Foes: Traditional 'Feminist' Condemnation of Surrogacy

» Heather_W - Can feminism and third party reproduction mix?

Do you consider yourself a feminist? What is your view on surrogacy or egg donation? Does the potential for abuse outweigh any good potentially brought about by surrogacy?

More than any of my articles to date, this is the one I am most curious to hear others' views on (not that I'd turn away comments in other sections, hint, hint!).

-- posted by Heather_W

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» 4naturalfamily - Surrogacy and Egg "Donation"

You ask for opinions fom feminists about surrogacy and about egg "donation" - is it a "right" or is it exploiting women?

I am a big believer in women's rights and appalled at how women are still essentially "owned" and used by men (and even other women) in many countries and cultures. I think "surrogacy" and egg "donation" are just more ways to use women.

Women are being lured into "surrogacy" and egg "donation" by brokers and businesses that are not forthright with many of the legalities and the short- and long-term effects.

Brokering human egg "donation" is a very lucrative business. If the reports in the news are correct, the brokers get $30,000 when they sell a single human egg. Women are being paid $300-600 each time they "donate" their eggs - perhaps ten, perhaps forty eggs at once. There is a risk that the FSH they are given to stimulate egg production may have ill effects on their health. One woman I read about was "producing" even as many as 40 eggs/month. They must have been giving her extrememly high doses of FSH - that can't be good for a woman's health. Not only that but a woman has limited number of eggs - so her own fertility was being diminished very quickly.

Some of the women interviewed expressed a great deal of concern for the children they had lost through egg "donation".

A poor woman (or any naive college student) may be lured into "donating" eggs or her the use of own body to gestate an embryo and give birth to "it".

The child is considered an "it" - a product, not a human being. (See the link to the surrogate adoptees' blog and website below for the "child's" view on surrogacy.)

I have seen businesses offer women angel hats and angel shirts to lure them into "surrogacy". The "traditional surrogate" or "gestational surrogate" risks her health and perhaps even her life. Just because previous pregnancies were easy for her does not mean the next one will be.

In addition, the "traditional surrogate" is actually producing her own child for sale. Her other children may find it disconcerting (at the least) to know their mother values her child so little. They may miss thier brother or sister, whether they are allowed to express their feelings about it or not.

See what "Son of a Traditional Surrogate Mother" says on his website:

http://sonofasurrogate.tripod.com/

Here are links and excerpts from a few posts from the blog of a daughter of a "traditional surrogate":

http://umbliclychallenged.blogspot.com/2...
Surrogate Mother's Child

"I always fantasised that she would fly over from America and come and get me one day and say that she couldn't live without me anymore. I remember waiting for her on the front steps and looking at every blonde lady that would walk by to see if she looked like the lady in the picture. I used to think that she would come and see my recitals and plays and she would be sitting in the audience. Well it Never happened. She never came back and got me."

"I am just looking for someone like me. Is there anybody out there in the same situation? Anyone? Please, I want to hear from you. I feel so alone and so much like a freak. Half Adopted. Umbilicly challenged."

http://umbliclychallenged.blogspot.com/2...
Surrogacy - Daughter of a Surrogate Mother

"I almost feel as if there is something wrong with my natural mum. Like she is a few bricks short of a load. And then I look at the other two that raised me. How do you ask a woman to give you her child? Are you fucking daft? How can you sleep at night? I wonder who is crazier."

After the research I've done, I strongly feel there should be laws against luring women into "surrogacy" and egg "donation" - whether the payment is cash or "just feeling good about being an 'angel' ". I definitely think there should be laws against creating a child on purpose, with the intent to orphan her. Planned abandonment by a mother or father is a human rights abuse if there ever was one.

-- posted by 4naturalfamily

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