Fears of surrogacy ban after Australian couple deserts Thai surrogate mother of Down Syndrome baby

[KitSileya]

1. The surrogacy business, for a business it is, is very worrying to me.

Paying women from developing countries to risk their health to bear children for third world couples is ethically wrong to me. Especially when we see cases like these, but also on a general basis.

I am not condemning surrogacy in and of itself, but the paying of poor women to do it. I could accept laws where surrogacy could only be done for altruistic motives, and where the woman only got her medical expenses paid, and where there is a firm contract between the couple and the surrogate that would not leave a child in a foreign country with a woman who cannot afford it, and who most likely has no biological ties to the child. I have a lot of empathy with childless couples, but ultimately, my concern is with the surrogates. Women in countries like Thailand, India, etc, often have poorer health than women in Europe and America, and are often pressured, if not by family, then by financial obligations to their own family, to risk their health to do this. As a progressive, I cannot stand by and condone the exploitation of women in other parts of the world.