Surrogacy Outrage

Of course, I've heard of surrogacy.  But not until I read Breakpoint's article, "The Handmaid's Tale Come True, did I realize how widespread it has become.  It's alarming!

Surrogacy is embryo transfer.  Women who want babies but not the pregnancy that produces the babe, have their fertilized embryos inserted into other women.  These women carry the baby to term.  They are surrogates.

What has happened is an industry has arisen in Third World Countries.

 In India, the number of women renting their wombs for affluent white foreigners was so high that the government enacted a law limiting the practice to Indian couples. All that did was open the “market” to other desperate Third World women.

To me, this is just one example of a cultural fad gone amock.  Too many us jump on the latest fad without thinking very deeply.  Sound good, if you can't carry your own baby to term.  But good things are misused and in this case, our most vulnerable (babies and poor women), are being taken advantage of.

The author's of the Breakpoint article, John Stonestreet and Robero Rivera refer us to other references to learn more:

surrogacy clinics

• Julie Bindel | The Guardian | April 1, 2016

Can I Hire a Caucasian Egg Donor?

• Sensible Surrogacy | July 3, 2014

Wombs on rent: Inside a surrogacy hostel in India

• Seemi Pasha | Dailyo.in | September 22, 2016

The infertility industry has a dirty little secret. . .

• Center for Bioethics and Culture

Posterity

My neighborhood once was a haven for families.  When my children were young gangs roamed our backyards and walked in and out of our kitchens.  Literally, there was a path in the hedges between the house next door and mine.  The voices of children echoed in the air.  Bus stops had lines of children queuing.  My children had a wonderful neighborhood to grow up in.  They and I have good memories.  That was then; this is now.

For a long time, I've wondered where the children went.  I see plenty of young people jogging.  I also see many couples, also singles, walking dogs.  The thought has occurred to me that people aren't having children nowadays, but rather they're pet owners.  Pets are satisfying the human need to love and nurture.

My thoughts were reinforced today by the article, "Fur Babies," in Breakpoint.  John Stonestreet articulates what I've long thought.  He calls it "pet parenthood," or "fur babies."  Young people today opt to care for pets because it's less an investment than a child.  With a pet, life is still focused on them.

Kind of selfish, heh?

I enjoy the thought that when I die, I still live on, in my children and grandchildren.