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Womb for rent
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Over at Newsweek is an interesting article exploring the little understood world of surrogacy. The practice is on the rise today, and while many surrogates and those they help tout it as a viable way to build families, not everyone is convinced.
“Surrogacy raises important red flags,” says Margaret Little, a professor of philosophy at Georgetown University and fellow at the Kennedy School of Ethics, “because you are selling use of the body, and historically when that’s happened, that hasn’t been good for women.” In addition, conservative Christians often “decry the practice as tampering with the miracle of life, while far-left feminists liken gestational carriers to prostitutes who degrade themselves by renting out their bodies.”
What’s your take on the practice of surrogacy?
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Pathetic tradeoff
Hasn’t there already been some custody problems?
It places the woman in a surrogate adulterous situation because the child she carries is not her husband’s.
Sarah tried the surrogate thing and it didn’t work out so well for her. Her daliance with a surrogate has cause far-reaching problems all the way to the present generation. Just saying…
I don’t have any problem with it if people were normal. Once folks get involved a beautiful thing can turn ugly quick. Still if my wife and I couldn’t have children we would certainly seriously look at it and try to find a womb , assuming my wife and I didn’t become one during the process.
Just look at it like an adoption with slightly more hassle but less waiting and cost involved.
I have considered it. As you all know (ad nauseum) I had difficulty having Chloe. Once I was pregnant I sailed through it and the delivery. For a brief while I considered carrying someone elses child so that they could have a baby. I would have only done it for someone who could conceive but not carry, therefore biologically it would not have been my child. Now I am too old and tired and wouldn’t do it.
They had a piece on this on GMA this morning. It seems to be a big thing in California and Texas among military wives because they can make $20-30,000. The woman who was interviewed said the child was not hers genetically, and she likened surrogacy to service, as in the men serve in Iraq, and she does this service at home.
I don’t know how you could give up your own child. That was the problem for MaryBeth Whitehead. She was the actual genetic mother and couldn’t do it. The NJ trial and appellate courts treated the issue as a contract, but the state Supreme Court reversed. My friend worked for the attorney who represented Whitehead and said she was a bit of a flake, but we both gave her credit for fighting for her child. I was surprised that so many couldn’t understand her feelings.
Just because they can do something, doesn’t mean they should do something. I wouldn’t call these women prostitutes nor adulterers. What I don’t like is that poor women would be put in a position to use their bodies like this to make a living. Even if the child isn’t genetically your own, I would think there is a bond formed while carrying the child. That’s an emotional risk to the woman.
Sarah and Abraham did this very thing with Hagar and we can all see how well that turned out.
Well, Joe B. and Klasko, it would depend on whether the person providing the womb is also the person providing the ovum. Kim and NJLawyer make that distinction nicely, while still acknowledging that even then, there is a bond.
There’s an endless list of potential catastrophes in these arrangements.
No matter how hard I try, I just can’t see myself in a situation where I’d say, “Hmmmm. This sounds like a good idea.”
I don’t believe GOD intended someone elses body to carry another persons child. It’s not so different from adultery, the only difference is, the egg and sperm have met by another means, but the end is the same.
I wouldn’t think of doing such a thing.
Children can be adopted. If adoption isn’t possible, I believe that GOD has another plan for someones life. Demanding to have a child by any means isn’t submitting the LORD.
I agree with Victoria 100%.
Why adultery? Sara and Abraham didn’t use artificial insemination, so it’s hardly a fair comparison. I don’t know that I would ever want to use a surrogate - too many problems. I would rather adopt. But I don’t see how it is adultery.
A woman in our church carried twins as a surrogate mother. No one said a word, though everyone knew the plan (she had four children of her own). Everyone came through fine and the parents–who live two hours away–are very grateful.
I found the whole concept disturbing, and wasn’t surprised when a year later, the woman had another child of her own.
In spite of the nausea, I loved being pregnant. I loved feeling a child moving beneath my skin and I missed them after they were born–it felt lonely inside my body by myself again.
But both emotional and physical risk are involved in a surrogacy contract and it’s not a choice I would make. We can cause more problems than we solve when we go around God’s plan for someone else’s life (Go ahead and reflect on Sarah and Hagar and the descendents of Ishmael). God opens and closes the womb for reasons far beyond what we can see at a given time, and I don’t believe it’s wise even if it is possible.
Michelle - but, where do we draw the line? God allows some to have children and others not to. Granted. But, maybe this is an option for some. What about artificial insemination? The technology may be God’s way of allowing a pregnancy. Medical care can be argued the same way. Shouldn’t we use the tools we are given?
I don’t know the answers, I’m just asking questions. I don’t even know that I like artificial insemination, since it seems that embryos are always destroyed in the process. Would I feel differently if I were struggling for a baby of my own? Maybe. I don’t know where the line is, but it’s interesting to think about.
Michelle - 13
I loved your post, everything about it was thoughtful and true.
If GOD chooses to open the womb HE will, or HE can close it for reasons we don’t know.
We can’t toss out GOD’S plan in favor of our own.
TL, there is lots of technology available in medicine, that doesn’t mean it is of GOD, it means that man has gone his own way, we as Believers don’t have to follow.
Those who wish to change their own sex by surgery and hormones, is that right? ….. NO, but there are those who would argue that the technology is there, so why not? I could go on but I think you get the idea.
I don’t have answers, either, TL. And I didn’t have to deal with infertility issues, so I don’t have a full understanding of the desperation a barren couple goes through.
I’ve read a lot on the issue and–again I’m not trying to draw a hard line or condemn–it seems that a number of couples fall into the trap of idolatry about having a baby. The focus of everything becomes having that child and it drives them to behaviors that seem technologically extreme to me.
It’s the attitude that troubles me–a baby at all costs–when perhaps it is God’s will that they pour their lives into something else, heartbreaking though that may be.
Had it happened to me, I probably would have investigated all means that seemed “natural,” by which I mean methods of encouraging pregnancy which did not involve anything outside of my body.
Washington Post writer Liza Mundy’s Everything Conceivable: How the Science of Assisted Reproduction Is Changing Our World was very enlightening on this subject:
http://tinyurl.com/2cm2ru
First get the terms straight. Artificial insemination and invitro insemination are two different things. In artificial no embyos are destroyed or few if any are. I had IUF (intra-uterine fertilization) using artificial insemination. I also took a lot of vitamins and minerals. I also travelled a lot with my job at the time, so every city I went into I called the prayer hotline to give my prayer request. I also had my photo and prayer request put on the alter at Brownesville Assembley of God Revival that went on for several YEARS. I also had a Christian lady I know read Deuteronomy 7 over me and pray for a baby.