Cultural Imperialism: Rent a Wombs in India
Whatever happened to good old fashioned adoption? It's still here, of course. But in our sense-of-entitlement times, why adopt when we can rent a poor woman's uterus to gestate a baby for us? That's seems to be a growing business in India. From the story in the New York Times:
An enterprise known as reproductive outsourcing is a new but rapidly expanding business in India. Clinics that provide surrogate mothers for foreigners say they have recently been inundated with requests from the United States and Europe, as word spreads of India’s mix of skilled medical professionals, relatively liberal laws and low prices.Meanwhile, other forms of medical tourism include buying organs from the destitute, as we have discussed here.Commercial surrogacy, which is banned in some states and some European countries, was legalized in India in 2002. The cost comes to about $25,000, roughly a third of the typical price in the United States. That includes the medical procedures; payment to the surrogate mother, which is often, but not always, done through the clinic; plus air tickets and hotels for two trips to India (one for the fertilization and a second to collect the baby).
We are not entitled to everything we want just because we want it. Infertility is heartbreaking but so is orphancy. Poor people are not brood mares. The story warns about a potential for exploitation. This is by definition exploitation, against we in the wealthy lands of the world should turn our backs.
posted by Wesley J. Smith @ 5:10 AM
7 Comments
7 Comments:
It is really, really hard to adopt a newborn in this country. And while it used to be that adoptions were final, there have been some high-profile cases in recent years where children old enough to be damaged by the experience were removed from their adoptive parents. It's why a lot of people go for overseas adoptions, but that door is not as open as it used to be either.
That doesn't make what you are writing about OK, of course.
This is what happens when people are treated as products.
For the most part all the fundamental requirements for slavery are in place. A price is paid for a human being. Where this leads is darkness.
It is actually really easy to adopt a child in this nation. Especially if you are willing to adopt a child that isn't white.
What we are seeing here is the result of the "every child a wanted child" syndrome. So adoption is forgotten about and wombs are rented and a human being is created in our image. The subtle message is that the children that are offered for adoption are labeled as "unwanted" because they don't look like us.
Paul - not a newborn. Some people want that experience.
Also, until recently it was impossible for a white family to adopt a black child in many states. I'm not sure it's easy even now. And one reads over and over that white people shouldn't try to raise black kids because they won't sufficiently prepare them to be oppressed. I wouldn't accept that argument but lots do.
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And of course, adopting older children is out of the question these days because usually an older child is placed for adoption/fostering when he or she is removed from a threatening environment. It's very hard to adopt someone whose biological parents are willing to fight and turn their children against someone "stealing" their babies. Also, lots of people have problems with adopting older children because the older child remembers his or her biological family and may be mentally or physically traumatized by neglect or abuse. Some children who need adopting are violent, act out, and can be dangerous. Many people realize this and can't cope, so they don't try. Others go in with a naive attitude and are shocked by the things the kids do.
Sometimes it isn't even violence - there was a report about a woman who "gave back" a seven-year-old she adopted becuase she and the child couldn't bond properly, according to the adopting mother.
We need a lot more parenting classes out there, for biological parents as well as adopting ones, and we need to encourage those people who want to adopt to take classes to learn to deal with older children, to encourage them to adopt older kids.
Instead, folks are going out and abusing women in other countries because they want an "undamaged" child who resembles them in some way, and they want the "experience" of raising a baby.
I'm seriously considering adopting an older kid when I get more financially stable, since I'm not insane with joy about daipers and spit-up and temper tantrums of little kids. But a lot of people don't see it that way. So, you get folks who think the world owes them a baby and who will abuse another person to get it.
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