Let me say up front I’ve not read the Handmaid’s Tale nor have I seen the series.
I started reading it once but the writing style was not to my liking and the subject matter was too bleak. It was, in a word, ugly. Of course that was the whole point. People like ugly especially when it’s mixed with religion.
But lots of people on here like to reference the Handmaid’s Tale. In fact someone just did. It’s one of the “I hate fundamentalists” go to arguments. Because well it’s a “real threat” after all…./s
Anyway, I know enough about the book to get the gist of what’s going on. And as it’s been talked about on here numerous times, I’m familiar.
In fact some years ago, I think I did post an OP on the subject of surrogacy using the Handmaid’s Tale as a comparison. As I recall, quite a few commenters handed me my head, for various reasons.
Of course in the Handmaid’s Tale the women, in a religious dystopia, are forced to bear children and then those children are taken away. That of course, doesn’t happen with what’s called altruistic surrogacy, such as it currently exists. At least, not in the US…we hope.
So don’t think I’m suggesting that there is a comparison on that front. I’m only using the Handmaid’s Tale as a kind of mental picture. So much for a **disclaimer**.
However, the function of the woman is the same in both examples. The handmaid is a surrogate. She bears a child for someone else and then hands it over.
So as the subject came up in a discussion recently, I thought it might be good to bring it up again on BNR and respond to some questions put to me with this OP and let others respond. So let’s revisit.
The question was (and I’m paraphrasing):
What is the difference between adoption and having someone carry a baby specifically “bred” for them? “Bred” is my word, not theirs.
So I did a little checking and the article referenced got me thinking. (And that article is just one of many but I had to pick one.)
It seems we don’t need religion to create a dystopia or at least a less than moral situation in the name of free choice and consent.
We have one in the making and religion has nothing to do with it. But it’s not just people of faith who have misgivings.
And more puzzling to me, there are even a few people in the faith community who are ok with surrogacy, though that approval is much less common. However, if you believe some posters, people of faith are the ones you should fear on the issue. Nope. Think again.
So picture this.
You have a nice couple who so desperately want a baby (and basically at this point, it really is all about them, the couple) that they contract with a woman, usually a young woman on her own, or someone who needs the money, to bear them a child. And the $$$ can be considerable.
This desire, (not need mind you, desire) has produced surrogates or willing Handmaids, or gestational “incubators” if you prefer. (Yeah, that sounds way better. /s)
This nice couple expects the woman to carry a child for 9 months, somehow avoid any kind of emotional attachment with this child that she has by necessity become so intimately and literally connected to and then hand it over at an appointed time. That much alone can only be described as selfish. And I think that assessment is being kind.
And then you have the woman who’s involved.
How unnatural is it for a woman to be able to so easily turn away from all connection to this child as she hands it over and not only that, but do it for money? And I don’t care what you say, if you carry a child, you are connected emotionally if you have normal human emotions.
I don’t even know what to call that lack of connection.
Mercenary? Unfeeling? Certainly unnatural, if it’s an informed choice.
Are we supposed to put such a mindset on a pedestal? Even most animals feel a connection to those they birth and are distressed to give them up.
And even if it’s not done easily, perhaps the woman desperately needs the money?
How hard must it be for her to stuff her emotions away in order to be able to do such a thing?
How desperate must she be?
Or perhaps she’s doing it out of love for a friend or relative. How misguided must it be to feel that one has that much responsibility to see to it that the other party is happy? Wow. Talk about pressure.
How unfeeling must the potential parents be to expect it of her?
What makes any of us think we essentially deserve to be parents so much that this is acceptable morally? To take advantage of sometimes desperate need is as bad as availing yourself of someone’s greed.
Why does anyone think this route is anything but exploitive and selfish and demeaning?
And the child, it’s now a commodity.
If it’s not up to snuff, it can be rejected though the contracting parent may still be legally on the hook so to speak. Can you imagine? Even children that are handed over and accepted must at some point come to realize they were contracted for and bought.
Add to that, you have breach of contract issues, doctor liability, risk to mother and baby, a host of other legal issues. And what of abortion? The terms vary widely from contract to contract and state to state, but the vast majority will include a clause allowing the contracting parents to make decisions about abortion. That’s done up front usually, before the woman gives birth. https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2016/02/surrogacy-contract-melissa-cook/463323/
And no it’s not the same as adoption.
Adoption doesn’t set out to be the business of growing children for profit or selling them as a commodity. Adoptive children, even the unborn ones who already exist in some stage of development need homes and moms and dads. Mothers for whatever reason, will most often give up their children because they feel it’s a better choice not primarily for cash though I’m sure that can enter in.
What do we call growing babies for money? Any other time we’d call it trafficking. And in Asia, surrogacy is a booming business, but it’s called “adoption”. So even something as noble as adoption is tainted by the practice of surrogacy.
But as it’s the likes of celebrities and the wealthy with their lawyers who indulge in the practice, who’s going to call them out? Well, some are beginning to and actually have been for some time.
Gay Rights and Surrogacy Wrongs: Say “No” to Wombs-for-Rent
“We are a lesbian and a gay man who have been involved for many years in the struggle for gay and lesbian equality and for broader human rights issues. We both unequivocally oppose all forms of surrogacy as unethical; as legally, medically and psychologically dangerous; and as an abusive commodification of women and of babies that also carries significant and barely-reported health risks for the women and babies involved.
We are calling upon our community to refuse to be used as a shield for exploitative people, both gay and heterosexual, to normalise the practice of womb
trafficking.”
https://www.stopsurrogacyno…
15 Reasons to Oppose Surrogacy
Read on. Surrogacy has something to offend everyone.
All surrogacy is exploitation – the world should follow Sweden’s ban
As this article says, there’s just something not quite right about surrogacy.
Surrogacy may have been surrounded by an aura of Elton John-ish happiness, but behind that is an industry that buys and sells human life.’
https://www.theguardian.com…
This seems a bizarre way of going about having a child. At best, it’s a “womb for rent”.
How many surrogate births are the in the US? About 750 babies are born each year using gestational surrogacy.
Now compare that to the number of abortions (Hello! millions of potential adoptive children) and tell me, what’s going on here?
We take away on one end only to add on at the other? This is crazy.
Is it that “my particular genes or fertilized eggs ” are so much more important, so much more worthy of life than all those others that get flushed?
Somewhere in our Big Book of Collective Moral Responsibility, that’s got to be called what it is, selfishness
at
it’s
worst.
And there’s no shortage of links to engage surrogates.
Hatch Egg Donation and Surrogacy- Making miracles happen since 1991
Los Angeles Surrogacy – Always looking for women interested in becoming surrogates. And the website address includes the words “rent my belly”. (cringe)
Lovely.
And if you are up for more reading, it gets worse.
America’s Overlooked Surrogate Mothers
https://jolt.richmond.edu/2018/01/24/americas-overlooked-surrogate-mothers/
Southernstar
Article URL : https://www.christianpost.com/news/15-reasons-to-oppose-surrogacy.html