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Original poster

Normalising buying babies

183 replies

HarrietSpying · 21/04/2024 08:28

I’ve been randomly following a bloke on Instagram with a wife who’s into tablescaping 🙄 No idea how or why I started following him, possibly due to his foodie posts. Anyway recent posts revealed a new baby, with mention of the ‘person’ who gave birth. His wife’s page reveals her ‘greed’ at wanting another baby - with other photos showing three other children - so they resorted to, what is in my mind, buying a baby. Obviously the birth of a baby is lovely news but is it so normal now to procure one from a ‘surrogate’ (awful term) that nobody really bats an eyelid. Just find it so depressing. Also very aware that there may be some jealousy on my part. Cancer meant I could only ever have one baby and I’d have loved a big family. But surrogacy never ever an option for me for ethical reasons.

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WarningOfGails · 21/04/2024 08:49

I saw it too and was also horrified.

GrazingSheep · 21/04/2024 08:47

Paris Hilton has had a baby girl via surrogacy.

Desperada68 · 21/04/2024 08:44

I wasn't able to have children and find this normalisation of mainly wealthy folk and celebrities treating children as yet one more commodity beyond repulsive. We're about a generation away from the Handmaid's Tale at this point.

drawnfrommemory · 21/04/2024 08:44

I saw that as well as I follow her. I was really surprised, and I assume the surrogate is Mexican as that is where they were on ‘holiday’ just before the birth was announced.

BrownTableMat · 21/04/2024 08:44

See also the Observer’s piece on Martha Lane Fox today. I’m truly sorry for her injuries and her suffering, but the piece just casually mentions in passing that she has twin sons by surrogacy. No mention of the risks of a multiple pregnancy, presumably by IVF, to the surrogate (or indeed of the surrogate at all):

https://amp.theguardian.com/media/2024/apr/20/martha-lane-fox-mountains-dotcom-entrepreneur-charity-peaks-car-crash

‘I was very nearly dead’: high achiever Martha Lane Fox is now on a mission to conquer mountains | Martha Lane Fox | The Guardian

After a car crash nearly killed her 20 years ago, the dotcom entrepreneur is climbing three peaks to make £300,000 for charity

https://amp.theguardian.com/media/2024/apr/20/martha-lane-fox-mountains-dotcom-entrepreneur-charity-peaks-car-crash

FlakyPoet · 21/04/2024 08:42

💐 Sorry to hear about your illness. Child trafficking/exploiting mothers through surrogacy is utterly unethical.

I have a part of me that wishes I had more children too, and feels a primal twinge of envy when someone has a new baby - it’s part of our animal instincts.

Unethical, abusive and exploitative practices are constantly getting a cosy PR spin, especially if they make some people rich and preserve an unequal status quo. Prostitution, pornography, surrogacy, polygyny, etc. The careful staging works like propaganda and puts us in a conflicted state. Our internal voice says “I know this thing is all sorts of unnatural and wrong, but these people look so healthy, happy and okay with it, I can’t put my finger on it, maybe it is me that is wrong”.

Woman2023 · 21/04/2024 08:40

The normalising of taking babies from their birth mother because they've been "commissioned" is horrendous.

Unfortunately, people are selfish and others can make money out of it so the misery caused to women and children is ignored.

Wimbledonmum1985 · 21/04/2024 08:35

I saw it too and could not agree with your more OP. But when you have that much money I guess you can do what you want.