ADF Senior Counsel Brett Harvey writes:

It is a straight forward notion that is easily understood:  “people are not property.”  This country suffered through a civil war and struggled with a civil rights movement in part due to the misguided notion that people can be bought and sold.  So why is the State of Washington considering opening its doors for the sale and commercial manufacture of human beings?  I recently asked myself this question as I sat in a committee meeting of the Washington State Senate. 

The State of Washington is one of several states that have criminal statutes against selling pre-born children in a commercial surrogate arrangement.  However, the Washington State House of Representatives passed HB 1267, which seeks to repeal the criminal statute and promote commercial surrogate arrangements. Fortunately, on Tuesday, April 12 the Washington Senate had the good sense to strip HB1267 of the provisions promoting commercial surrogacy before passing an amended version of the bill.

Why do Washington and other states outlaw the sale of children via a surrogacy arrangement?  It is because experience demonstrates the dangers of commercial surrogacy.  Washington’s criminal prohibition did not arise in a vacuum.  In 1988 the United States was captivated by the Baby M case being decided by the New Jersey Supreme Court.  After Baby M was born, the birth mother felt compelled to be a part of Baby M’s life.  The problem was that a couple had bought her egg and rented her womb.  The couple wanted to be free to raise the baby they bought without having to be concerned about the desires or rights of the birth mother.  The New Jersey Supreme court recognized that children and women aren’t products to be bought, sold, rented, and discarded. In 1989, after seeing this legal drama unfold, the State of Washington made commercial surrogacy a crime.

After the Baby M case, the State of NJ commissioned an extensive study to evaluate the challenges created by surrogacy arrangements.  The report considers the legal, ethical, and social problems and concludes that commercial surrogacy should be outlawed.  Additionally, 20 plus years of experience with commercial surrogacy confirms the report’s conclusion.  While some states allow surrogate arrangements in limited circumstances, litigation is frequent.  Women facing economic hardship are vulnerable to be manipulated and exploited to sell their bodies and endanger their health for promise of a financial payoff.  Women are being permanently damaged as a result of going through the harvesting, implementation, and birth process.  As the international surrogate baby market booms, poor women are being subjugated as baby machines, trapped in surrogate farms .  Problems ensue when the baby doesn’t come out as “ordered,”  or the financial incentives conflict with the woman’s health needs or the needs of the baby.  Birth mothers regularly have a change of heart after the baby is born because they were unable to anticipate the relationship they would have with the child growing inside of them.

Promoting the rental of body parts and the purchase of babies hurts and dehumanizes both women and children.  This reality is highlighted by the amicus brief filed by Gloria Steinem and other leading women’s rights leaders in the Baby M case decrying commercial surrogacy because it treats women as living incubators for the benefit of third parties who want to manufacture children.  Creating a marketplace for the intimate services of women, the sale and commercial production of children, and the development of the parent-child relationship based solely on a financial transaction treats these items as “commodities.”  Women should not be viewed as objects to be used and discarded.  The womb is not a crock pot in which to mix the ingredients, slow cook for nine months, and simply put back on the shelf.

In Part 2 of “Selling Children: Condemned or Celebrated?” we’ll take a look at how commercial surrogacy impacts children.

Please leave a comment below to share your thoughts or follow us on Facebook to join the conversation. http://www.facebook.com/SpeakUpChurch