“The Ruth Institute has long known that surrogacy is a humanitarian nightmare. Anyone with money can do anything they want,” said Ruth Institute founder and president Dr. Jennifer Roback Morse, Ph.D. “But now even the most obtuse advocates of ‘freedom’ can see the problems.”
The Wall Street Journal recently ran an article about “ultra-wealthy Chinese nationals” using US-based surrogacy agencies to sire small armies of offspring. One such billionaire, Xu Bo, has more than 100 children.
These men want to build business empires with their male offspring. Some of these surrogacy arrangements take advantage of US birthright citizenship: their children will be US citizens if born on US soil.
“All children deserve a relationship with their biological mother and father, married to each other,” Morse said. “These children of the surrogacy industry will be raised neither by their genetic mothers nor their gestational mothers. Most likely, these kids won’t have authentic human relationships with their fathers. What Xu Bo and others are doing is an injustice to the children, plain and simple.”
The article reports that some Chinese executives intend to marry their daughters off to influential men. One man purchased dozens of eggs from models, a finance Ph.D. and a musician at costs ranging from $6,000 to $7,500 each.
“This is so wrong,” Morse said. “The adults are ‘free’ to do whatever they can pay for. But these little girls were manufactured and paid for with the express intention of being married off against their will. What ever happened to their freedom and self-determination?”
According to the article, a sophisticated international market of “American surrogacy agencies, law firms, clinics, delivery agencies and nanny services—even to pick up the newborns from hospitals—has risen to accommodate the demand, permitting parents to ship their genetic material abroad and get a baby delivered back, at a cost of up to $200,000 per child.”
“I often admire the Wall Street Journal for its defense of economic liberty,” Morse continued. “But even the Journal seems uneasy with these cases. The ‘freedom’ of the adults comes at the cost of the freedom and dignity of the children.”
“Children should not be for sale. Children need relationships with their own mothers and fathers. Therefore, adults need to behave, no matter how rich and powerful they may be.”
See also “Why Everyone Should Oppose Surrogacy”
