The child vessel

[nairiporter]

I recently learned about the deeply moving story of the mother of a 2-grade pupil at the school where I am deputy principal, who had recently become a surrogate mother. Maybe because I have an adopted child myself, a 5 year old boy from Haiti, it struck a chord. This woman is a poor white Afrikaner from the suburbs of the big city, someone who has

Comments

[di_glossia]

Coming from the US and a city with a particularly well-known reproductive medicine establishment, this all seems very obvious to me: it's a non-issue. A contract is created between the intended parents and the surrogate mother. Most surrogate mothers here are required to have already given birth to at least one or two children, be in a financially-stable living environment, be within a certain age range, as well as meeting certain medical requirements (no STDs, no pregnancy complications, non-smoker, etc.), and enjoy being pregnant. These requirements reduce the likelihood of a woman wanting to keep the surrogate child and of a woman using surrogacy as a desperate, financial means

[a_new_machine]

Most surrogate mothers here

And there, I think, is the key difference. It's a pretty big divide in a lot of walks of life between here and there.

[di_glossia]

This is true, and it is why I would advocate changing South African requirements for surrogate mothers at least to the three basic non-medical requirements of a US surrogate mother (previous healthy birth, financial stability, and appropriate age range), as these requirements negate many of the issues presented in this post.

The example given violates one of the basic stipulations of a US surrogate mother: to be financially-stable. A woman who uses surrogacy as a way to make ends meet is not an ideal surrogate mother. There has to be some motive other than monetary reward, even if it's just deriving enjoyment from pregnancy, to ensure that the woman is not being degraded or using her body for monetary means.

[nairiporter]

Actually the South African requirements very much correspond to what you are proposing, and in any case are much more liberal than most of the world. Which is exactly why people from other countries, including Canada, Australia, the US and most of the EU, flock into this country and apply for surrogacy.

We could say that it has been a non-issue in South Africa. It is an issue most anywhere else. I said as much in my story. The part that I agree with, and which I see as the main source of problem here, is indeed,
There has to be some motive other than monetary reward

Which wasn't the case.

[nairiporter]

I sure am glad that there are cities like yours where this has largely been a non-issue for quite some time, and where things have been arranged in an efficient way. I'd have loved that to be the case with the rest of the world, or even your country, but in reality, it continues to be a controversial issue in the majority of places elsewhere.

I agree that there should be a very clear set of rules to oversee the whole process, ones that take the interests of all sides in mind. Otherwise, the serious risks would remain, especially the child and the surrogate mother.

Unfortunately, in most cases whenever these considerations are being made, too often emotions rule rather than sober thought. And people have already taken firm stances which they refuse to review under any circumstances, be it for cultural, ethical or most often religious reasons.