{"id":262288,"date":"2022-02-13T15:03:11","date_gmt":"2022-02-13T21:03:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.liveaction.org\/news\/?p=262288"},"modified":"2022-02-11T19:14:51","modified_gmt":"2022-02-12T01:14:51","slug":"adoption-ivf-surrogacy-need-know","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/adoption-ivf-surrogacy-need-know\/","title":{"rendered":"Adoption, IVF, and surrogacy: What pro-lifers need to know"},"content":{"rendered":"
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When struggling to have children, many couples today turn to the fertility industry for help; accordingly, the use of IVF and surrogacy has exploded. But fertility methods are fraught with ethical concerns, and have helped to create a world in which children are no longer seen as gifts, but as commodities or as things that adults are owed. When weighing the options of IVF, surrogacy, and adoption, pro-lifers \u2014 and anyone longing for children\u00a0\u2014 must understand the ramifications of using an industry to create their children. Adoption is the more ethical solution.<\/p>\n

IVF<\/h3>\n

IVF has created many beloved children, but the health risks associated with IVF are many. Children created through IVF have an increased risk of premature birth, high blood pressure, and cancer, and there are risks for their mental health as well. IVF has also killed millions of embryos in the process, with a million more perpetually frozen, waiting for their parents to decide if they want them or not.<\/p>\n

Read more about the dangers associated with IVF here<\/a>. It is important to remember that surrogacy does not generally happen<\/em> without IVF.<\/p>\n

Types of surrogacy<\/h3>\n

There are two types of surrogacy: traditional and gestational. In traditional surrogacy, IVF is not used because the surrogate is inseminated with the father’s sperm. In this sense, she is acting as both egg “donor” and surrogate. She is the biological mother of the baby, but has agreed to sell her baby to the couple. According to Southern Surrogacy<\/a>, her parental rights will need to be terminated, and in some states, the non-biological parent will have to fill out a step-parent form in order to have parental rights. Because of this, traditional surrogacy has been losing popularity in comparison to gestational surrogacy.<\/p>\n

In gestational surrogacy, the couple uses IVF to create a baby using the mother’s egg and the father’s sperm. When that isn’t possible, they use a donor egg or donor sperm to create the baby using IVF, and then attempt to implant that baby into the surrogate’s uterus. In doing this, the surrogate has no biological relation to the child, which means she has no parental rights to the child. It’s more expensive, but carries less legal risk.<\/p>\n

Children as commodities<\/h3>\n

Surrogacy allows couples to create their desired child, and the wealthier the couple is, the more options there are in creating designer babies.<\/p>\n

“When you are commissioning and swiping your credit card for a product, even one that you want badly, you are participating in commodification, regardless of whether the intended parents are the biological parents of the surrogate-born children. In this case, the products are human beings,” said Katie Breckenridge of the children’s rights advocacy organization Them Before Us<\/a>.<\/p>\n

A study<\/a> out of Harvard Medical School revealed that this isn’t an extreme statement. Sixty-two percent (62%) of children conceived through donor technologies, including surrogacy, believe it to be unethical and immoral. They feel like business transactions.\u00a0One woman told Them Before Us, “Somehow, somewhere, my parents developed the idea that they deserved to have a baby, and it didn\u2019t matter how much it cost, how many times it took, or how many died in the process. They deserved a child. And with an attitude like that, by the time I was born they thought they deserved to have the perfect child… as Dad defined a perfect child. And since they deserved a child, I was their property to be controlled, not a person or a gift to be treasured.”<\/p>\n

The loss of a parent<\/h3>\n

When a surrogate is used to create a baby, whether it’s the biological parents’ egg and sperm or those of a donor, the child always loses her birth mother in the process. Most people don’t think of the surrogate as the birth mother \u2014 often, they don’t think of her at all \u2014 but she is<\/em> the birth mother, whether she is the biological mother or not.<\/p>\n

For nine months, this child has been in the womb of one woman, and has become accustomed to her heartbeat and her voice. Studies<\/a> have proven that being separated from her at birth is a “major physiologic stressor” for the baby, which can permanently alter her brain and leave her susceptible to depression, abandonment issues, and emotional problems related to attachment, bonding, and self-esteem.<\/p>\n

One young man who was created through traditional surrogacy said that his birth mother was paid $8,000 to have him and give him away. He explained:<\/p>\n

Something horrible happened to us at birth<\/em><\/a>. We lost our mothers. They did not die, but they might as well have been dead because we lost them in the capacity of mother, and to a tiny baby, that feels like death… That makes us feel very rejected. That leaves a hole in our hearts whether we admit to it or it manifests some other way like in depression or a fear of getting close to someone else… <\/em><\/p>\n

Sometimes it doesn\u2019t show up until we are in our teens or [are] young adults, and like me sometimes it shows up as a baby when I scream my head off for six weeks and they call it colic… Nothing can console us… I wanted my mother and she wasn\u2019t there… You can\u2019t just substitute mothers and expect us to be OK with it.<\/em><\/p>\n