$28k
When we went to the big baby-stuff consignment sale, one of the ads we received with our receipt was for gestational surrogates for a fertility clinic. The offered compensation was $28,000.
In other words, the exchange value of the work and risk involved in a healthy pregnancy is $28,000.
The abortion debate is so often framed in absolutes--death and autonomy--that I think it's very useful to remember that decisions about family-making are scaled, not absolute: they involve the rationale of dollars and time and sleep, the misery of saying no to a partner versus the misery of peeing on a little stick and hoping nothing happens.
So what if we treated pregnancy like the work it is? What if it were just common knowledge that a person is putting in about $28,000 worth of labor when they carry a baby? In my case, nobody owes me that money, because I kept the baby and the other person with a legal claim on him contributed materially to my support while I was pregnant, and our finances are joint anyway.
A parent who does NOT share finances with the pregnant person could be billed $14,000. In those rape cases that are so good for hypotheticals, the rapist would owe $28,000 in addition to criminal charges.
And if we want to make abortion illegal, we need to talk about compensating the people who do the work of sustaining life. (I think abortion should be legal, because I fall heavily on the autonomy side of the argument. No one should be forced to work, not for free and not for money.)
This argument goes interesting places, like parenthood being a career choice. Capitalism is kind of nuts.
In other words, the exchange value of the work and risk involved in a healthy pregnancy is $28,000.
The abortion debate is so often framed in absolutes--death and autonomy--that I think it's very useful to remember that decisions about family-making are scaled, not absolute: they involve the rationale of dollars and time and sleep, the misery of saying no to a partner versus the misery of peeing on a little stick and hoping nothing happens.
So what if we treated pregnancy like the work it is? What if it were just common knowledge that a person is putting in about $28,000 worth of labor when they carry a baby? In my case, nobody owes me that money, because I kept the baby and the other person with a legal claim on him contributed materially to my support while I was pregnant, and our finances are joint anyway.
A parent who does NOT share finances with the pregnant person could be billed $14,000. In those rape cases that are so good for hypotheticals, the rapist would owe $28,000 in addition to criminal charges.
And if we want to make abortion illegal, we need to talk about compensating the people who do the work of sustaining life. (I think abortion should be legal, because I fall heavily on the autonomy side of the argument. No one should be forced to work, not for free and not for money.)
This argument goes interesting places, like parenthood being a career choice. Capitalism is kind of nuts.