Another Reason Why Surrogacy Objectifies Women... and Denies Personhood to Children

Sometimes I have the urge to look around secular news sites. I know, it's an urge I shouldn't give into as much as I do; there's only so much drivel from Yahoo! News a person can take. Usually something catches my eye that disgusts me as I try to keep abreast of current affairs in our country and across the world, but this story in particular made me absolutely sick. Apparently, as publications such as the Washington Post and Time Magazine report, a surrogate mother carrying the triplets of a single father was threatened to abort one of the fetuses growing inside her, or else suffer the consequences of legal, monetary damages. How sad is this?!

To think, in a world where we often hear cries of "My body, my choice!"... we know have a woman who realizes what's inside her is a life. A human life. And she does not want to extinguish that life. Save me the notes about how she may have "signed a contract" and now she's "legally obligated" to have one of the babies aborted. Is someone really going to force this woman to have an abortion? Is that really what our country has come to? Fortunately, in this case, the father has decided to respect the surrogate mother's wishes after threatening legal action, and at least for the time being claims that he will raise all three children. But how sad is that? Let it sink in a minute... this dad wanted to kill one of his children. Specifically the one that was not a twin, because one of the embryos split into two, making identical twins next to their fraternal triplet sibling.

Saint Joseph and Child Jesus- Robert la Longe

But has that sunk in? How will that father look at his child? What will happen if that child learns that their father wanted to kill them in the womb? Or perhaps the more important question is, how can any father arbitrarily decide which of his three children are murdered? This has happened in cases where all the fetuses are fraternal siblings as well, and this is where we get the PC term of "embryo reduction. It's like we're living in some dystopian sci-fi novel... but even authors like Ray Bradbury and Walter Miller could have never predicted the sheer inhumanity of people in what was their near future.

And then this all brigns up the thorny issue of surrogacy in the United States. Obviously, I think it should be illegal in all cases, but we have to be realistic here in a society that often sees nothing wrong with "helping" a couple. But then again many countries, including some from Europe, have actually banned all surrogacy, such as Pakistan, Iceland, Finland, France and Italy. At the very least, the wombs of our women should not be for sale. Many countries only permit "altruistic surrogacy", meaning that the surrogate mother cannot be paid for her services. Some countries that allow ONLY altruistic surrogacy include Canada, Australia and the United Kingdom. Countries like India and the US are the most liberal. Even though some states in the US ban surrogacy (such as Michigan), many states are safe havens. Why can so many other countries realize what a bad idea surrogacy for pay is, yet the US just keeps on trucking, even with horrible cases like the one in question? Perhaps prayers for conversion are our best bet. But maybe if more stories like this keep coming up in the news, our lawmakers will have to take action sooner rather than later. One can only hope, because the lives and dignity of both women and children are at stake.