The companies that carry out these practices promote them demonstrating an alleged altruism. A gay couple, for example, comments on the web page of the American company Growing Generations: “We want to explain that he or she is a result of a combination of very generous acts: especially the pregnant mother and the egg donor, who are also allowed him or her to exist. This gesture of offering the gifts of one’s body to others, is very nice.”
Nonetheless, beyond the companies’ marketing, surrogacy itself is an abhorrent procedure of manipulation of the human being that resembles the times of the slave trade.
The process begins by “shopping” in a catalog. First, you choose the woman who will be the egg donor, and then you choose the surrogate mother. Various embryos, obtained by the fertilization of the eggs of the first woman and the sperm of one or both of the gay couple, will be inserted into the surrogate.
Then in vitro fertilization (IVF) is performed: The embryos are inserted into the surrogate mother. When the embryos fail to develop, a new cycle should be started. Either new embryos that were previously frozen are inserted, or a new in vitro fertilization should proceed. If the procedure is still unsuccessful, another surrogate mother should be found. The large number of embryos that die in this procedure can be seen.
Two different women are used so that the surrogate mother isn’t the baby’s biological mother, to avoid creating a bond. Still, many profound psychological studies are carried out to make sure the surrogate mother doesn’t get attached to the baby and want to keep it.
The IVF procedure can result in twins or triplets. When that many babies aren’t wanted, an “embryonic reduction” is performed, or rather, some of them are aborted. This is agreed upon in the signed contract.
Translated by: Michelle Eddy
August 6 2012
