Surrogate motherhood, I think, is something that should be completely legal. There are certain problems with the system as it is now. It seems like the current system doesn't properly inform women who chose to be surrogate mothers of what they are signing up for, so they end up wanting to keep the child or some other thing which would negatively affect those who are paying them to have the child. However, I think that with modification to the system, it should be completely legal. I think that the system should be modified so that the surrogate mother is more completely aware of what she is signing up for.
There is another modification that I think should be made to the system; I think that people signing up to have a surrogate mother should not have access to the physical characteristics of the surrogate mother. It seems like those who want children should not be afforded the ability to choose the physical characteristics of their child. It places an emphasis on appearance which should not be there. Parents should like their child for what the child is/how the child acts/the child's sense of morality, not on their hair or skin colour. Parents and children alike are put under large amounts of stress when they have expectations for a child, because those expectations are not always met. Parents get upset because their child isn't blonde, heterosexual, or the dream gender.
I agree with the idea that clients of surrogate mothers should not be aware of the physical characteristics of the mother who will be having their child. However, I think that this should not be peculiar to surrogate motherhood - the industry enabling artificial insemination should adopt a similar policy. Currently, there are websites for artificial insemination services which list the height, ethnicity, and other physical details of the men who donated the material which would be available to whoever wishes to make use of the service. For the same reason that I think surrogate mothers should not provide details of their physical characteristics, I think that sperm donors should not provide their physical details - that is to say, it would help ensure that the parents want a child, no matter who that child turns out to be, rather than a person who they can fit into a certain preconceived mould.
ReplyDeleteP.S. I also posted this on my blog if you'd rather read it there.