New radio 4 prog with Sonia Sodha: the body politic

[WarriorN]

It's not been aired yet, due at 11:00 am today, but sounds extremely interesting.

First episode is on surrogacy.

Sonia has been really good on shining the light on thorny safeguarding issues such as assisted dying and gender ideology.

www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/brand/m0026v8h?partner=uk.co.bbc&origin=share-mobile

Thank you!

That's odd. BBC World Service ran a similar piece last week (6 Jan - my Alexa gets grumpy and sometimes gives me R1 or West Africa World Service instead of R4). It was all about the parent's feelings; the implications for the child didn't get a look in:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/w3ct6dmd

They followed it up with a piece about a lady whose husband died in a surfing accident and she harvested his sperm.

The three parts will be surrogacy, prenatal screening and assisted dying.

Sonia introduces herself as a "feminist on the left." (I'm pleased she says this; bit of 'sports casting.')

hoping it's a primer for second series on trans ideology

Sodha is going for balance but let them speak is instructive. Those who've acquired a child through surrogacy are coming across as justifying something because it gives them what they want and no other considerations matter.

Helen Gibson, founder of surrogacy concern is interviewed.

x.com/surrogconcern/status/1878688428558291089?s=46&t=A2fpFNgDRyXF2d6ye97wEA

@Madcats it does talk about the child's perspective with an interview with a woman who was a surrogate who believes she's had mental health issues due to the separation.

I thought it was a pretty good programme. Sonia did an excellent job of letting all sides speak. The Irish chap who has a daughter as a single gay man through surrogacy was right when he said that having children is not a human right and that there are at least three sets of rights to balance: the genetic parent's, the surrogate mother's and the child's. For me the child's are far above the other two and nothing will ever convince me that it is in the child's interests to be removed from their birth mother immediately after birth and given to someone else. I would be much happier if we followed most of the rest of Europe and banned surrogacy outright. I will be writing to my MP to say this.

The R4 programme was infinitely better than the World Service one. I did worry about that surrogate ambassador/Dad who thought that (I paraphrase) "everybody has the right to have a child".

One of my uncles was a Barnados baby, and I'm not sure he really reconciled being left by his mother. Knowing that the women who carried you knowingly had no intention of being part of your life is in a different league.

It sounds as if next week's episode will be a difficult listen.

He and his partner are now making a living out of arranging overseas surrogacies for UK clients, so it's natural he's evangelical about it. He thinks it's a human right for everyone to have a child.

Ugh that's awful.

I hope the programme was excellent.

I know the bbc gets a bad rap but being forced to provide balance can work well - as long as there really is balance.

Let them speak certainly worked in this case.

She's written a companion piece for the Observer:

www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/jan/12/i-am-a-rational-liberal-yet-a-question-about-the-sanctity-of-life-floored-me