The Injustices of the Surrogacy Industry | Sister Renée Mirkes | CWR
Catholic teaching on surrogacy is receiving reinforcement from current research.
Mothers have long believed,
cultures have long taught, and research has repeatedly confirmed that an
emotional network links pregnant moms to their babies. If mom is happy, the preborn
baby is content. When mom is anxious, the prenate shows signs of stress. What’s
more, post-birth, this bio-emotional nexus—the gestational link—continues to yoke
mothers to their offspring throughout childhood, adolescence, and adulthood.
It’s important, then, to investigate what happens when an enterprise like surrogacy sunders the gestational link. For the first time, a 2013 study suggests surrogate children experience greater adjustment difficulties and levels of stress than same-aged children born by gamete donation. [1] In other words, severing the gestational link can be even more devastating for surrogate children than splitting the genetic link can be for children produced by donor egg and/or sperm.
This report turns to Christian anthropology and prenatal research to connect the dots of the maladaptation of the surrogate child to the troubling exploitation that impacts all surrogacy stakeholders. Predictably, the injustices—the flotsam and jetsam of the surrogacy industry—don’t just harm the child,[2] they ripple out over the surrogate mother, the commissioning parents, and all of society.
The surrogacy explosion
Some women cannot get pregnant. They’re either born without a uterus, or have a non-functioning uterus, or have been repeatedly unsuccessful at gestating an in-vitro-fertilized (IVF) baby. Many of these sterile women, invoking the principle of patient autonomy, deem a contractual agreement with a surrogate carrier as their only alternative, other than adoption.[3]
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