The baby born through gestational surrogacy is equally valuable as any other human life!
This needs to be stated first because oftentimes those who support surrogacy and in-vitro fertilization argue that those who oppose it don’t recognize the lives of those born through artificial means as intrinsically valuable. However, that is not the case! Instead, we are concerned about the lives sacrificed in order to accomplish the goal of IVF and gestational surrogacy. There are many unborn babies that are sacrificed for the sake of the healthy children that are born from surrogacy in addition to the countless embryos that are frozen or destroyed. Here are a few of the problems with surrogacy and IVF.
- Surrogates Can Choose Abortion: Proponents of surrogacy say that no surrogate can be forced to have an abortion and that the intended parents are required to accept the child regardless of problems. While this may be true, it ignores the stark reality that some surrogates have no problem aborting unborn children if the intended parents ask her to follow the contractual agreement the parties have all agreed upon. In fact, some surrogates will decide to abort without the permission of the parents.
- Commodification of Women: In gestational surrogacy, the surrogate, or the “oven” as described by some, are treated merely as a means to an end. As has been discussed by other groups, gestational surrogacy equates the woman’s ability to give birth to a service that can be bought or sold on the market. As pointed out by Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist Kathleen Parker in her column Surrogacy Exposed, Washington Post (May 24, 2013), “almost half the surrogates in this country are military wives.” And the women displayed like products in catalogs on surrogacy broker websites reveal that many are single moms who are financially vulnerable. Lured with the seemingly natural process of pregnancy, women of Louisiana will not be informed by surrogacy brokers of the dangers of undergoing multiple injections of synthetic hormones and other drugs along with the dangers of surgery for the transfer of another couple’s human embryo. These procedures can have devastating short and long-term health consequences. Surrogates are pumped with high doses of drugs such as Lupron which is not FDA approved for fertility use; estrogen which is linked to breast and uterine cancers, heart attack, stroke and blood clots; progesterone; antibiotics; and steroids which are linked to high blood pressure, glaucoma, cataracts, peptic ulceration, and an impaired immune system.
- Sacrifice of “Other” Embryos: In Vitro Fertilization (IVF) is a necessary vehicle to bring about the goals of gestational surrogacy. IVF requires the sacrifice of human embryos for the intended goal of giving birth to children.
- Extra Embryos Fertilized: In IVF, embryos have to be fertilized in a petri dish prior to implantation in the surrogate. Because the success rate of implantation with these embryos is anywhere from 47% to 20%[1], many embryos will be fertilized and created.
- Implantation Results in Destruction of Embryos: After the embryos are created, a number of embryos are implanted at one time. Some embryos may implant and survive, while others will die.
- Embryos Frozen Face Uncertain Fate: If the first implantation is successful, the extra embryos will be cryogenically frozen, placing these human lives in an uncertain future.
- Repeat If Necessary: If the first implantation is unsuccessful, the extra embryos will be put to the same test as before until success is achived.
- Selective Abortion If “Too Successful”: If the implantation is highly successful, multiple embryos can develop. Whether the physician considers the pregnancy “high risk” or the couple does want multiple, selective abortion is standard practice where one or more of the unborn children are aborted to enhance the development of the desired baby.
- Process of Reduction: The unborn babies that are identified for “reduction” are given a shot of potassium chloride. The baby is killed and then removed. For example, it is typical for quads (four babies) to be “reduced” to two or even one child.
- Potential Fetal Defect and Abortion: IVF is linked to a higher incident of children with the potential for birth defects. When these potential birth defects are identified in the womb, abortion is an unfortunately regular outcome.
Louisiana Right to Life maintains that the governmental regulation of gestational surrogacy will open the door to the destruction of more human embryos and a higher occurrence of selective abortion in Louisiana.
We do not wish to discourage any one’s desire to conceive. However, we should never create life to destroy it.
[1] “2009 Clinic Summary Report”. Society for Reproductive Medicine. Retrieved 14 July 2011.
