The Wall Street Journal reports on the growing phenomenon of reproductive tourism. I encourage Regular Ruth Readers to go to this story and comment.
In a hospital room on the Greek island of Crete with views of a sapphire sea lapping at ancient fortress walls, a Bulgarian woman plans to deliver a baby whose biological mother is an anonymous European egg donor, whose father is Italian, and whose birth is being orchestrated from Los Angeles. She won’t be keeping the child. The parents-to-be—an infertile Italian woman and her husband (who provided the sperm)—will take custody of the baby this summer, on the day of birth.
You understand, this is all a business deal. Some people want babies. Other people have the raw materials for babies, the eggs, the sperm and the wombs. An entrepreneur brings the buyers and sellers together, in a purely voluntary commercial transaction. Who could possibly have any moral reservations? Anyone with even the slightest hint of an “ick” reaction just has a vestigial ethical code that obviously no longer serves any legitimate purpose.
So, let me raise some issues about the commercialization of babies.
1. A child is not an object to whom other people have rights. A child is a person who has rights of his or her own.
2. Anyone who can pay gets to do anything they want.
3. Mr. Rupak and his enthusiasts in the Comments section repeatedly state that these babies are going to people who want them and will love them. Really? How does he know that? Is he doing even the minimal amount of screening that adoption agencies do? All we know is that people are willing to pay money for the babies.
4. Under the commercialization of babies scheme, human beings begin their lives as objects that have been purchased. At what point do they become persons with rights of their own? For how many generations of bought and paid for children, will we be able to maintain the idea that “all men are endowed by their creator with certain inalienable rights,” if a significant number of us are “created” by people like Mr. Rupak?
5. Do children have any rights that adults are bound to respect? The right not to be hurt, you say. Fair enough. But do children have any relational rights with their parents? Do children have any entitlements at all to any relationship at all with any particular adult at all?
Just asking. Do all these issues have self-evident happy answers?
As I say, I encourage Regular Ruth Readers to go the WSJ and comment on this story. If you have friends who are regular readers of the Journal, and are already members of their on-line community, it will be especially easy and effective, for them to go comment.
You will be revolted by some of the comments you see there. Go chime in for the next generation and for common sense.