Should it be legal to pay surrogates to have babies for you and your significant other?

[Josie]

I don't know all of the details on this, but I believe some states allow it. New York state government has proposed a bill to make it legal in their state. What say you? Should paid surrogacy be legal or illegal?

 

[JMR]

I don't know all of the details on this, but I believe some states allow it. New York state government has proposed a bill to make it legal in their state. What say you? Should paid surrogacy be legal or illegal?

Isn't New York one of the three states where it is currently banned? What's going on in the other 47?

 

[Captain Adverse]

I don't know all of the details on this, but I believe some states allow it. New York state government has proposed a bill to make it legal in their state. What say you? Should paid surrogacy be legal or illegal?

I have no problem with it's legality.

IMO people should have control over their own bodies. So as far as I am concerned, prostitution, bondage, personal drug use, a person's choice to alter their appearance via plastic surgery, a woman's right to choose, a person's desire for assisted suicide...and paid surrogacy is all one in the same to me.

As long as it is a free choice made by an ADULT with the full understanding of the consequences, and acceptance of full responsibility for outcomes good or bad...I say why not? :shrug:

P.S. I could not vote because I don't understand the "Barring criminals" exception in choice #1.

 

[Nap]

I didn't realize something like that was illegal. As long as everyone is a consenting adult I don't see why it should be illegal.

 

[phattonez]

I don't know all of the details on this, but I believe some states allow it. New York state government has proposed a bill to make it legal in their state. What say you? Should paid surrogacy be legal or illegal?

This should absolutely be illegal. This is taking advantage of the poor for your own gain. I cannot imagine ripping a child away from a mother after childbirth. I know feminists like to use the woman as an incubator trope when discussing abortion, but in this instance that's absolutely what's going on.

 

[Josie]

Isn't New York one of the three states where it is currently banned? What's going on in the other 47?

I found this:

U.S. Surrogacy Map | Creative Family Connections

I find it actually really surprising that NY has banned it.

 

[phattonez]

I have no problem with it's legality.

IMO people should have control over their own bodies. So as far as I am concerned, prostitution, bondage, personal drug use, a person's choice to alter their appearance via plastic surgery, a woman's right to choose, a person's desire for assisted suicide...and paid surrogacy is all one in the same to me.

As long as it is a free choice made with the full understanding of the consequences, and acceptance of full responsibility for outcomes good or bad...I say why not? :shrug:

Because this philosophy neglects the possibility of exploitation.

 

[phattonez]

I found this:

U.S. Surrogacy Map | Creative Family Connections

I find it actually really surprising that NY has banned it.

It's also illegal in most of Europe.

 

[Josie]

New York | Creative Family Connections

^^ There's NY.

 

[Josie]

This should absolutely be illegal. This is taking advantage of the poor for your own gain. I cannot imagine ripping a child away from a mother after childbirth. I know feminists like to use the woman as an incubator trope when discussing abortion, but in this instance that's absolutely what's going on.

If it's the poor woman's choice to do it, how is that wrong?

 

[phattonez]

If it's the poor woman's choice to do it, how is that wrong?

Because it's exploitative. She's not freely consenting to it. She only chooses it out of necessity.

And besides, even if she freely consents, what of the right of the child to know his mother?

 

[Josie]

Because it's exploitative. She's not freely consenting to it. She only chooses it out of necessity.

And besides, even if she freely consents, what of the right of the child to know his mother?

She wouldn't be his/her mother unless she provided the egg.

And isn't everything we do to earn money out of necessity?

 

[JMR]

I found this:

U.S. Surrogacy Map | Creative Family Connections

I find it actually really surprising that NY has banned it.

I believe in New York, the birth mother retains legal rights to the child at birth. They can't sign away those rights beforehand. That's what is currently being legislated.

 

[Captain Adverse]

Because this philosophy neglects the possibility of exploitation.

No it doesn't. :roll:

What part of "free choice" do you fail to grasp? (Perhaps you thought I meant everyone, as you posted before I added "adults?")

 

[OrphanSlug]

Isn't New York one of the three states where it is currently banned? What's going on in the other 47?

They all got over it a long way back, or decided to avoid the discussion.

 

[JMR]

This should absolutely be illegal. This is taking advantage of the poor for your own gain. I cannot imagine ripping a child away from a mother after childbirth. I know feminists like to use the woman as an incubator trope when discussing abortion, but in this instance that's absolutely what's going on.

It seems in New York, the most well known feminists are in agreement with you....How do ya like that?

 

[phattonez]

She wouldn't be his/her mother unless she provided the egg.

The mother contributes far more than an egg.

And isn't everything we do to earn money out of necessity?

And we have things like minimum wage and other labor laws to prevent exploitation in labor. Think of it this way: how much would you have to pay a middle class mother to engage in surrogacy? Presumably no amount would be enough. Now dangle a job offer worth $1 million, and she'd probably go for it.

 

[JMR]

If it's the poor woman's choice to do it, how is that wrong?

I think the argument in New York is about when the birth mother signs over all rights to the child.

 

[JMR]

I didn't realize something like that was illegal. As long as everyone is a consenting adult I don't see why it should be illegal.

It seems surrogacy is legal, but birth mother does not give up rights to child before birth.

 

[JMR]

Because it's exploitative. She's not freely consenting to it. She only chooses it out of necessity.

And besides, even if she freely consents, what of the right of the child to know his mother?

Do not confuse the biological mother with a the birth mother.

 

[phattonez]

No it doesn't. :roll:

What part of "free choice" do you fail to grasp? (Perhaps you thought I meant everyone, as you posted before I added "adults?")

Of course it does. When you have an extra room to spare to a family that's escaping a natural disaster, and you demand all of their possessions for the room, they might agree out of desperation, but you're certainly exploiting them. There's nothing fair about the transaction.

 

[Captain Adverse]

Of course it does. When you have an extra room to spare to a family that's escaping a natural disaster, and you demand all of their possessions for the room, they might agree out of desperation, but you're certainly exploiting them. There's nothing fair about the transaction.

That's not "free choice." That's a devil's bargain made under duress. It has nothing to do with my original response. :doh

 

[WillyPete]

What would enforcement even look like on that? Who's making the complaint?

Even the doctors involved wouldn't necessarily know there was money changing hands.

At worst, you're driving a whole industry underground (again!)

We can't enforce the laws we already have on the books, FFS.

 

[Josie]

I think the argument in New York is about when the birth mother signs over all rights to the child.

And you cannot pay a surrogate.

So what say you? Should it be legal to pay your surrogate?

 

[Josie]

The mother contributes far more than an egg.

And we have things like minimum wage and other labor laws to prevent exploitation in labor. Think of it this way: how much would you have to pay a middle class mother to engage in surrogacy? Presumably no amount would be enough. Now dangle a job offer worth $1 million, and she'd probably go for it.

Why would no amount be enough? Women choose to be surrogates out of compassion for the couple who can't conceive their own. Why do you think she'd only go for it if the payment was $1 million? Most surrogates get much, much less than that.