Surrogate Mothers - Personal Incubators?

Question

Just curious as to how you feel in regards to this issue of how women in India are being used as incubators for women around the world.

http://www.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/asiapcf/12/30/india.wombs.for.rent.ap/index.html?iref=mpstoryview

I have very mixed feelings on this as the idea does not sit with me even tho- I do not have an issue with women who choose to be surrogate mothers. But wow...what next.

Answer 1

Does anybody stop to consider how the child produced from this might come to feel about how he/she came to be created, and why?

I wonder if Velken has stopped to consider it.  My guess is, no.

Answer 2

i dont have any problem with it at all.  those women choose to do it, no one is forcing them.  

when i was going to school in AZ, there was an ad in the school paper, THE SCHOOL PAPER!!!, that was looking for a college female, blonde, blue eyed, to donate eggs to a couple who was looking for someone to help the have a family.  they were willing to pay $50,000 and cover all medical costs.

if its what you want to do, go for it.  i would sure hope there was someone out there willing to do this for me should i ever want kids and cant have them myself.

Answer 3

i'm not going to lie, i LOVED being pregnant!!! if someone i loved couldn't carry a baby to term and i could help her, i would.

thats not to say i don't think its weird. and i would prefer adoption myself. in my opinion if your going to pay that much money anyway why not give a good home to a couple kids that need parents? but if they feel its neccessary to have the same blood line....

Answer 4

i think its yucky, and it gives me icky feelings.

Answer 5

i think who ever is doing it will go to h**l

it is very wrong

Answer 6

Yuk.  More exploitation of women, disgusting

Just how is the child going to feel, nobody gives two hoots about the kids really do they, as if the kids mattered ppfftt

Answer 7

I dont agree with what sunny has said. I dont think that adoptive parents are taking anything away from anyone! Its the birth mothers who are choosing to give up thier kids.

I do find it apauling that people are being used to bring kids into this world, just to be adopted. Those women who want kids, should look at adopting in their own countries rather than around the world!

Answer 8

sexual imperialism

sick

sick

sick

Answer 9

it is an exceptable idea for a troubled nation

dont thumbs down someone because u dont agree with them----umm this is still america and we are all allowed are opinions----and the fact is they are all adults and are not forced to do anything they do not want to do---

-----this is an agreement that helps both parties--one who wants a baby and cant and then other that will be given food and shelter and a substantial mount of money they would have no other way of acheiving ----

Answer 10

Ya, sure it's great that they get lots of money for it.  But, high end prostitutes make okay money, too.  But, it's certainly degrading.

The women in India who do this are giving up a lot.  They move away for the pregnancy to hide it from their families, as they feel shame.  They lose so much, including carrying a child and then giving it up.  It's not easy for them at all.  It's very sad that they have to turn to something like, that rapes them of their own feelings of well-being, in order to feed their families.  They are taken advantage of due to their desperation of poverty.

Edit:

This isn't simply a "just a great business transaction," you see.  It's about people's lives on a human level, not a business level, so to speak.

Answer 11

I am a 2x gestational surrogate mother.

As odd as it sounds, my biggest problem with this is the amount of money being given to these women.

I don't think it should be SO MUCH.  Yes, I think its too much.

When they are being paid 15x the annual salary of others in their town, it is no longer a choice for them.  

Think about it, if someone said to you "Hey, I'll give you a million dollars to buy a kidney (or a foot, or bone marrow, or whatever) and you could send your kids to college (or buy a house, or be financially set for life, or whatever)" then it takes much of the choice factor out of it, doesn't it? I mean, what WOULDNT you do so that your children could have a great future?

It goes from a beautiful journey, made by two loving families into a paid transaction that seems like a financial windfall.  

These women do not have many options where they are.  And being told how they should feel?  They need to know how they will feel about the baby BEFORE they get pregnant!

To me, it does not seem totally right.

Answer 12

It really makes me sad to read this.  Exploiting anyone for personal gain is simply wrong.  Things like this remind me of how difficult it still is to be "female" in most of the world.

Answer 13

It's disgusting.

But adoption has always been about taking from the 'have not' and giving to the 'haves'.

Here we go again.  Desperate women who are so poor, and the Westerners with cash use their bodies for their desires.

"What next", indeed.

Answer 14

I think its wonderful. I'm not crazy about surrogates, but the woman can earn what it would take her 15 years to do otherwise. For someone in poverty, its alot better of a solution than prostitution! The surrogates get medical care and a place to live, the parents get a baby they want desperately. Maybe it sounds bad to you, but all I can see is how the women are able to help their OWN kids and family. In their place, I'd probably do it. 9 months equals 15 years of work money in their country. I'd carry someone else's kid if it improved the lives of my own children. To me this is about bettering their life, legally.

Answer 15

Yes I do find it sad because there are so many children in this world that need loving homes. Then again some people will go to any length to get a biological child and this just shows it.   Sarah the surrogates are carrying the biological child of the couple who pays for the surrogate. It’s not the surrogates biochild that they are carrying. The surrogate is just donating her oven, while  another couples bun bakes in the oven. Because the genetic mothers oven is broken.

I guess people do what they have to survive and take care of their own families. If this poor people could get a decent wage and not 25$ a month they wouldn’t have to resort to things like this.   The fact that it would take 15 years to earn 4,500, 1 year to earn 300$ when these woman  are probably working 8+ hours a day. Its sad and unjust.

Answer 16

i guess we've now officially outsourced everything to india. including our pregnancies. *rolls eyes*

honestly, i have a guest account with a surrogate message board and it's interesting what many of the surrogates have to say about these types of practices.

i have this account NOT because i want to become a surrogate; yet because i truly wish to understand the motivation behind the practice.  and the women are wonderful about answering my questions and helping me understand the practice. also, these women are mostly middle-class, are financially stable and do it for altruistic reasons.

what i've found is that there are three reasons for the practice: 1) individual driven altuism, 2) financial (for the woman), and 3) financial (for people other than the woman).  ironically, points 2 and 3 are where most of the surrogates on the board take issue. and i agree.

the practice as it is happening in india is financially driven. for that reason, it kinda flies in the face of "personal choice."  these are very poor women, from indigent villages who have limited resources other than to be pimped out by dr. patal for a fraction of what she's making off these pregnancies.  a similar practice is going on in south africa and other developing countries regarding egg donation. it's exploitive.  

"Suman Dodia, a pregnant, baby-faced 26-year-old, said she will buy a house with the $4,500 she receives from the British couple whose child she's carrying. It would have taken her 15 years to earn that on her maid's monthly salary of $25."--

are they serious??? can someone really tell me that women are clammering to do this because they want to help out infertile couples thousands of miles away?  i doubt it. most are doing this because the alternative is to make $25/mo. they are doing it for the same reason why young people get involved in other types of questionable behavior for money. because the alternative yields them nothing. so, if people are so concerned about them improving their conditions, why not sponsor a family, join a humanitarian council, and do something OTHER than use these women like human incubators!!! also, i'm not too impressed by the $4500 price tag.  h**l, before UK refomed it's policies, this couple would have eagerly paid 6-times that amount for an adoption.

IMO, whenever ethically-questionable practices involving disenfranchised people (poor women from war-torn, politically corrupted, et al., countries OR POOR COLLEGE STUDENTS) benefits those more affluent, it sends chills down my spine.

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it's the same argument the s*x workers in the netherlands made when they spoke out about the s*x practice in thailand, russia and the use of pimps. the women in the netherlands do it for "personal choice" (they are s*x positive, demand condoms use, are self-governed...) and the later are usually forced into it due to poverty, trafficking and are subjected to violence, abuse, STDs, forced abortion and exploitation.

Answer 17

If there were no drastic economic disparity between the parties involved, I might have to decide what my moral stance on this is.  But there isn't, so I don't--it's despicable, and people who try to spin it otherwise make me ill.