Google Baby’ Follows Birth Outsourced to India, Essay Example

The opening statement

Giving birth is one of the greatest experiences in a woman’s life, and there is no better tribute to that experience that having a child to name whatever that mother desires even branding herself as the child’s biological mother which she would be. However, infertility is one of the biggest roadblocks to having a baby and most women feel lucky to not ever have to go through that experience then there are those who would give anything to have that experience because it signifies their womanhood. Let it be known that infertility is like a double-edged sword, it can be good to not have to go through the pains of having a child or it can be bad because a woman cannot go through that humbling and wonderful experience. Ironically, there are a lot of women who are looking into another not-so great option in order to have a baby of their very own and that option is surrogacy. Surrogacy is allowing another woman to carry the baby of an infertile couple to full term, women who desperately want a baby usually go with this option because it seems practical and remotely safe. However, infertile parents encounter several problems with surrogacy and one of them is that it is a very expensive procedure. Some couples expect to wake up the next morning with their new baby, and everything would be peachy keen. That would be the case if they did not have to worry about either leftover hospital bills or possible complications with the birth. Surrogacy is an option that most infertile couples should ignore at all cost in order to avoid extreme pain, and possible loss so as to not have the stress of constantly worrying about what is happening to the baby every second. I for one am anti-surrogacy because to me, there is nothing to be gained from being a surrogate and a lot of people are likely to get crushed from a lot of significant issues that most surrogates usually drive themselves crazy over. This paper will point out why I’m anti-surrogacy and why it is a big waste of time.

Surrogacy is too expensive

One of the reasons why surrogacy is a bad idea is because it is too expensive and it is a procedure that most couples cannot afford, the procedures run anywhere from $25,000 to $80,000 and up; being a surrogate is not cheap. Furthermore, couples who are looking to be surrogates are usually owners of private insurance companies that do not pay for procedures such as having a baby or paying for in-vitro fertilization which puts people in a tight bind. Those at the mercy of the economy will have an even bigger problem because they might not have either a job or insurance to their names, it could put couples at a huge disadvantage. Ten times out of ten, the surrogacy procedure is a little more than most couples can pay for and they know that their dreams of having a baby counts on them funding the procedure no matter what the cost even if it means taking out a second or third mortgage on their house.(Kuczynski, 2008) noted that “the surrogacy procedure can cost a little less than $50,000, some people are not fortunate in having private doctors for the procedures which means that it will cost more”. For some people who really want a baby, their worries lie in where the money is going to come from and not being able to come up with the money could delay their plans to have a baby. Personally, surrogacy is a little too expensive and the money could easily go toward either adopting or saving for retirement. Surrogacy is one of those things that people should not have to pay a lot of money for, a couple’s hope of having a baby should not solely rest on the fact of whether their financial situation is in order. It can be argued that surrogacy is a good idea if the couple has the right insurance and the right amount of connections in order to get a rush on the procedure, couples cannot even begin to imagine the terrible ordeal they are putting themselves in. It is in a couple’s best interest to steer clear of surrogacy, or the idea of it; it is for their own good.

The surrogate parents could fight to keep the child

Surrogacy is already a very stressful business that some couples do not see the light of day of because they get attached to the baby, the surrogates get to a point where they decide that since they did all the hard work then they should keep the trophy so to speak. For example, a couple decides to hire a surrogate in order to have a baby and they choose someone they know. Oddly enough, the surrogate couple agree and get all of the compensation that they need for medical expenses as well as money for the surrogate procedure. However, the surrogate couple start to feel possessive and want to keep the baby. The surrogate couple feel that since they are the ones that did all of the work, they should keep the baby; signing over parental rights is not an option. (Haworth, 2014) noted that “a surrogate couple have rights too and feel that they are just as entitled to that baby as the biological parents hence a custody battle ensues”. Ironically, some potential surrogate couples pass up the opportunity to become possible surrogates because they do not want to get caught up in all of the red tape and headache as well as heartbreak of giving the child back to the infertile parents. This could be very devastating to the surrogate parents who either want a child of their own and cannot have one or decide that they want to increase their “winnings” tenfold by keeping the baby. Even though there are contracts in place that argue that surrogates do not have rights to that child after it is born, there are some lawyers as well as attorneys that can find some way to overturn that contract so it is not as legally binding. In my opinion, having a baby isn’t worth this trouble because it just seems to me that if the infertile couple have the possibility of losing the child because the surrogates are fighting to keep the fruit of their “labor” then it could be argued that the concept of surrogacy should be made illegal. Unfortunately, the drawback to this is that it’ll destroy any chance of future infertile couples having a baby of their own. Would it be worth it, I think it would.

Surrogacy should never be an option

I know that for some couples having a baby means everything, it would give their lives even more meaning that it has ever had; having a good job, a loving wife, paid bills on time and a good car does not seem to be the ideal anymore. There are some people who feel they are ready for children, but they cannot have any of their own in which case they seek the option of surrogacy. While it is not a bad idea, it can have a lot of detrimental effects on the infertile couple such as the surrogate parents want full custody of the baby they carried to full term. This is the fear of every infertile couple on Earth, no one wants to beckon someone else to carry their baby then the surrogates would become the baby’s biological parents. “Having a baby costs as much as the surrogacy procedure itself, people could be broke before the term is over” (Google Baby, 2010). Some couples do not seem at all phased by the fact that the surrogacy procedure costs a lot of money; couples have been known to pay anywhere from $30,000 to $120,000 for the entire procedure. It is ultimately not worth it by a longshot because there is too many things that the money can be used for and if a person asked me, I would be trying to ideally find other things to do than to find a surrogate for having a baby. It can be argued that some people are not really meant to have children, there are some of them that are but it is more of a matter of being able to afford the procedure. Overall, surrogacy should never be an option for having a baby because there’s too much at stake for both the surrogates and the infertile couple who chose them. Both parties usually end up suffering a lethal amount of damage because they will feel that the part of them that could’ve made their family whole is now gone, it is also worth noting that surrogacy has more consequences than rewards. Being anti-surrogacy has taught me that going through unnecessary pain isn’t worth it if you do not have to.

References

Conan, N. (2010, June 15). ‘Google Baby’ Follows Birth Outsourced To India. Retrieved December 9, 2014, from http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=127860111

Haworth, A. (2014, January 1). Womb for Rent: Surrogate Mothers in India. Retrieved December 9, 2014, from http://www.webmd.com/infertility-and-reproduction/features/womb-rent-surrogate-mothers-india

Kuczynski, A. (2008, November 28). Her Body, My Baby. The New York Times. Retrieved December 9, 2014, from http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/30/magazine/30Surrogate-t.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0