To think there's a valid discussion to be had about the ethics of surrogacy?

[LRDtheFeministDragon]

Just what the title says.

I know some women become gestational surrogates out of altruism, and that in some places (not the UK) women can be paid quite a bit to be surrogates. But I still think the ethics of it is worth discussing.

I'm curious how other people see this. I worry that it's so easy for women to be exploited. And it does seem to me that there's a gendered issue here. I'm not sure men 'get' how difficult and potentially dangerous pregnancy is.

www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/feb/25/surrogacy-sweden-ban

She is still used as a vessel, even if told she is an angel. The only thing she gets is the halo of altruism, which is a very low price for the effort and can only be attractive in a society where women are valued for how much they sacrifice, not what they achieve

Spot on

@CapnHaddock quite an unusual article to appear in the guardian perhaps the tide is turning...

Even if it was a year ago (!)

stitchglitched thank you for the link.
Do you know if researchers have also looked at how the children of surrogates (ie the children being brought up by their mother who is also a surrogate ) get on? What do they feel about their mother being pregnant and the baby then leaving their family? Does it feel different to them if the baby is someone else’s embryo or if the baby is genetically a half sibling of theirs, via their mums egg? And does how those children feel, differ from how children of egg (or sperm) donors feel about their parent/s being donors and giving eggs and sperm to other people?

is a surrogate and has strongly advocated for pre birth orders, she has argued that this would offer surrogates significantly more legal protection if they had access to them. current framework for parental orders means surros have no protection if IPs were to hypothetically change their mind

They have exactly the same protection as any other pregnant women should the other parent have no interest and the same if neither parent does.

I’m also fascinated by the whole automatic referral to social services at booking appointment if your a surrogate.

I can’t find a nhs policy that states it’s essential or one that goes as far as saying it’s a legal requirement.

All the policies related to making sure the surrogate is cared for over the IP’s and how that will happen with a passing referance to a meeting with everybody that can include a safeguarding midwife if needed but is not a requirement.

In my experance with children’s social care the only surrogates we came into immediate or fast contact with was the vulnerable ones or the more bizarre situation ones until such time as the parental order was applied for.

And it beggars belief that anyone involved in any way with an ounce of understanding of how the law relating to children works would even attempt to convince themselves and others that a prebirth order protects anybody other than the IP’s.

And using the argument that a pregnant woman’s husband has to be recorded as the child’s biological parent thus preventing the biological father from exercising any responsibility is ridiculous in the extreme as that is only the case where the woman’s husband consents to it occurring, one would think that should the husband not wish this to occur then unless all involved are a little hard of thinking then all he has to do is not consent which paves the way for the actual biological father to be named and if that occurs promptly then there is no up to 6 month gap where there is nobody with PR caring for the baby on a daily basis.

And it beggars belief that anyone involved in any way with an ounce of understanding of how the law relating to children works would even attempt to convince themselves and others that a prebirth order protects anybody other than the IP’s.

Yeah.

If prebirth orders genuinely are favoured by the majority of surrogates, what that tells us is that there's a need for more education about the law amongst this group, and the limits of what a prebirth order could actually accomplish. And actually that's potentially valuable information.