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A couple of weeks ago @NYGovCuomo legalized commercial #surrogacy by attaching it to financial aid during #COVID outbreak. Non-profit surrogacy was already legal.
Bill was sponsored by @bradhoylman, who also wants to legalize sex trafficking and create a breast milk industry.
Bill was sponsored by @bradhoylman, who also wants to legalize sex trafficking and create a breast milk industry.
Why are feminists opposed to #Surrogacy?
1) It is a predatory industry that exploits marginalized women.
This has resulted in de facto eugenics as Asian countries became surrogacy tourist destinations.
Marginalized brown women birthing white babies. https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2016/apr/01/outsourcing-pregnancy-india-surrogacy-clinics-julie-bindel
1) It is a predatory industry that exploits marginalized women.
This has resulted in de facto eugenics as Asian countries became surrogacy tourist destinations.
Marginalized brown women birthing white babies. https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2016/apr/01/outsourcing-pregnancy-india-surrogacy-clinics-julie-bindel
2) Women still die in childbirth.
This is especially true for surrogacy pregnancies, as all are deemed "high-risk" due to the hormones used. No official record is kept on how many women have died in surrogacy contracts.
More about health risks later. https://www.today.com/parents/mom-acting-surrogate-another-family-dies-while-giving-birth-t172216
This is especially true for surrogacy pregnancies, as all are deemed "high-risk" due to the hormones used. No official record is kept on how many women have died in surrogacy contracts.
More about health risks later. https://www.today.com/parents/mom-acting-surrogate-another-family-dies-while-giving-birth-t172216
The US has one of the highest maternal mortality rates in the industrialized world.
Creating a womb rental industry is a death sentence.
They are telling us that the "right" to paternity certainty, and profit, matter more than women's lives. https://www.vox.com/2020/1/30/21113782/pregnancy-deaths-us-maternal-mortality-rate
Creating a womb rental industry is a death sentence.
They are telling us that the "right" to paternity certainty, and profit, matter more than women's lives. https://www.vox.com/2020/1/30/21113782/pregnancy-deaths-us-maternal-mortality-rate
Of course, the maternal death rate is compounded by race and class, with US black women suffering a rate 300% the rate for white women. https://www.nbcnews.com/health/womens-health/u-s-finally-has-better-maternal-mortality-data-black-mothers-n1125896
3) Paternity certainty
This is the foundation of patriarchy: men controlling women's bodies to be certain the child carries their DNA. The mother could always be certain a child was hers. https://www.fairobserver.com/culture/surrogacy-legality-ethics-womens-rights-news-018210/
This is the foundation of patriarchy: men controlling women's bodies to be certain the child carries their DNA. The mother could always be certain a child was hers. https://www.fairobserver.com/culture/surrogacy-legality-ethics-womens-rights-news-018210/
Though #Surrogacy advocates often frame the issue as helping infertile women when the situation suits, it is most beneficial to gay male couples.
Gay men are advocating to enshrine paternity certainty and entitlement to female bodies into law. https://www.reuters.com/article/us-taiwan-lgbt-familyplanning-feature-tr-idUSKBN1YR02P
Gay men are advocating to enshrine paternity certainty and entitlement to female bodies into law. https://www.reuters.com/article/us-taiwan-lgbt-familyplanning-feature-tr-idUSKBN1YR02P
4) Commodification of life
The main conceptual problem in surrogacy — the production and sale of a child — is that it reduces both women and children to commodities in commerce.
This results in trafficking women and children in “baby farms”. https://www.newvision.co.ug/new_vision/news/1510175/ugandan-women-sold-china
The main conceptual problem in surrogacy — the production and sale of a child — is that it reduces both women and children to commodities in commerce.
This results in trafficking women and children in “baby farms”. https://www.newvision.co.ug/new_vision/news/1510175/ugandan-women-sold-china
5) Surrogacy IS human trafficking
In Thailand, human organ-selling gangs are trafficking women into #surrogacy and selling the babies to China, where there is a sex disparity due to the selective killing of girls. https://www.aseaneconomist.com/thailand-to-probe-chinese-surrogate-gangs/
In Thailand, human organ-selling gangs are trafficking women into #surrogacy and selling the babies to China, where there is a sex disparity due to the selective killing of girls. https://www.aseaneconomist.com/thailand-to-probe-chinese-surrogate-gangs/
The #CPSA bill passed in NY (called the "Child Parent Security Act", how Orwellian) does not protect against trafficking and stipulates that the woman giving birth cannot change her mind. It secures the parentage of the paying customers and removes it from the birth mother.
Another issue in regards to paternity certainty is the bizarre criminality of fertility doctors impregnating women with their own sperm without their knowledge or consent.
That's part of broader issues with ART in general. https://inews.co.uk/news/real-life/ivf-sperm-fertility-scandal-dutch-doctor-jan-karbaat-2520643
That's part of broader issues with ART in general. https://inews.co.uk/news/real-life/ivf-sperm-fertility-scandal-dutch-doctor-jan-karbaat-2520643
6) Health Risks: Mother
All surrogate pregnancies are high-risk.
Think of embryo transfer as organ transfer. The body may reject foreign DNA and may cause a variety of complications.
These are NOT the same health risks of any other pregnancy.
All surrogate pregnancies are high-risk.
Think of embryo transfer as organ transfer. The body may reject foreign DNA and may cause a variety of complications.
These are NOT the same health risks of any other pregnancy.
"They feel as if they have been hired to do a job, and that job is a paid breeder. One surrogate, who almost died due to high-risk pregnancy complications, was told that it was her fault and was accused of doing it on purpose to make more money." https://ifstudies.org/blog/the-overlooked-risks-of-surrogacy-for-women
Genetic surrogacy uses IVF to create an embryo to implant into the gestational mother. This carries a risk of twin pregnancy of around 21%. Twin pregnancy has many complications during pregnancy and labour including pre-eclampsia, anaemia, and obstetric haemorrhage.
In addition, the use of hormones during the procedure - both for egg donation and gestational surrogacy - are known to have severe side effects for women.
Lupron is also used to chemically castrate sex offenders, and given to halt puberty of GNC youth. https://www.nwhn.org/lupron-what-does-it-do-to-womens-health/
Lupron is also used to chemically castrate sex offenders, and given to halt puberty of GNC youth. https://www.nwhn.org/lupron-what-does-it-do-to-womens-health/
@JenniferLahl has made several films and done interviews with women about the various ways their health was impacted, mentally and physically, and how they were exploited by the industry. She has also addressed the UN on this issue
#Surrogacy was developed by farmers for husbandry. One of the creators of IVF was an active eugenicist. Emerging technologies, such as sex-selective surrogacy, were also developed for increasing profits through animal breeding: selecting for females cows and chickens.
7) Health Risks (child)
"Neonates born from commissioned embryos and carried by gestational surrogates have increased adverse outcomes, including preterm birth, low birth weight, hypertension, maternal gestational diabetes, and placenta previa" https://www.fertstert.org/article/S0015-0282(17)31941-6/fulltext
"Neonates born from commissioned embryos and carried by gestational surrogates have increased adverse outcomes, including preterm birth, low birth weight, hypertension, maternal gestational diabetes, and placenta previa" https://www.fertstert.org/article/S0015-0282(17)31941-6/fulltext
Babies born with disabilities may be abandoned. https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-08-20/ukraines-commercial-surrogacy-industry-leaves-disaster/11417388
In 2015, Australia's Family Court awarded custody of a girl born through #surrogacy to a man with 22 child sex offenses.
The court ruled 2 yo Pipah could not return to Thailand to live with her birth mother, despite Mr Farnell's history of pedophilia. https://www.watoday.com.au/national/western-australia/gammy-twin-pipah-to-live-with-farnell-family-despite-risk-of-sexual-grooming-20160415-go72a3.html
The court ruled 2 yo Pipah could not return to Thailand to live with her birth mother, despite Mr Farnell's history of pedophilia. https://www.watoday.com.au/national/western-australia/gammy-twin-pipah-to-live-with-farnell-family-despite-risk-of-sexual-grooming-20160415-go72a3.html
Surrogate-born children are more likely to suffer depression https://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-2344362/Surrogate-born-children-likely-suffer-depression-carried-real-mother.html
"I knew from an early age that I was purchased and selected from essentially a catalog. I knew that my blonde hair and blue eyes was somehow valued above other colorations … that I was purchased precisely to make her happy, that was my raison d’etre." http://www.cbc-network.org/2019/07/bigfertility-exposes-ways-surrogacy-harms-children/
8) Sex-selective surrogacy (SSS)
A procedure which allows intended parents to choose the sex of their child.
According to a recent study, men preferred to select for sons over daughters, whereas women expressed no preference for the sex of the child.
https://www.bionews.org.uk/page_144104
A procedure which allows intended parents to choose the sex of their child.
According to a recent study, men preferred to select for sons over daughters, whereas women expressed no preference for the sex of the child.
https://www.bionews.org.uk/page_144104
The process for SSS is becoming increasingly streamlined. Last summer, researchers in Japan discovered a new sperm-sorting method that is already being applied by the dairy and egg industries to select for female livestock. https://www.newscientist.com/article/2213377-sperm-sorting-method-could-prevent-girls-being-born-scientists-warn/
Sperm carrying the X has 500 more genes than sperm carrying the Y. Researchers attached proteins to the X genes to slow them down. It seems sperm sorting mimics real life on a micro scale: men deliberately weighing women down in order to advance.
These chemicals could be potentially added to gel or foam products that would be applied inside the vagina before sexual intercourse to greatly increase the chances of conceiving a boy.
So we "fix" the problem of female infanticide by simply opting out. https://www.newscientist.com/article/2213377-sperm-sorting-method-could-prevent-girls-being-born-scientists-warn/
So we "fix" the problem of female infanticide by simply opting out. https://www.newscientist.com/article/2213377-sperm-sorting-method-could-prevent-girls-being-born-scientists-warn/
9) Embryonic Eugenics
Gene-editing via CRISPR may be frowned upon now, but that could soon change as technology rapidly develops. Increasingly, tech is becoming nearly impossible to regulate. https://www.cbsnews.com/news/chinese-scientist-he-jiankui-who-touted-crispr-editing-sentenced-three-years-prison-today-2019-12-30/
Gene-editing via CRISPR may be frowned upon now, but that could soon change as technology rapidly develops. Increasingly, tech is becoming nearly impossible to regulate. https://www.cbsnews.com/news/chinese-scientist-he-jiankui-who-touted-crispr-editing-sentenced-three-years-prison-today-2019-12-30/
Egg “donation” ads commonly specify racial, physical, and intellectual characteristics, seeking women of a particular ethnicity such as Jewish or Asian, 5’9″ or taller, an SAT score of 1500 or higher, physically attractive with “good genes” http://www.cbc-network.org/issues/making-life/egg-donation-and-exploitation-of-women/
Mitochondrial replacement technologies confer an inheritable genetic alteration, a change which is passed on to future generations if the child is a girl. Changes to DNA will potentially be permanently incorporated into the human genome.
The U.S. National Academies of Science advised that use of mitochondrial editing be limited to male embryos, in which event the change would not be inheritable. So far, this suggestion has been ignored by policymakers. https://theconversation.com/the-next-frontier-in-reproductive-tourism-genetic-modification-67132
“I didn’t want to give her away, I was crying,” Liudmyla recalls. She says that after two days of caring for the infant in the maternity ward, letting her go was a wrench. “But I knew what it was all about.”
#StopSurrogacy #surrogacy #SexNotGender https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/jun/15/the-stranded-babies-of-kyiv-and-the-women-who-give-birth-for-money
#StopSurrogacy #surrogacy #SexNotGender https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/jun/15/the-stranded-babies-of-kyiv-and-the-women-who-give-birth-for-money
Analyzing health records of more than a million Danish children, researchers found that babies conceived through assisted reproduction involving frozen embryo transfer were more than twice as likely to develop childhood cancer.
#IVF #Surrogacy #ART https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-ivf-cancer/children-conceived-from-frozen-embryos-at-increased-risk-for-certain-cancers-idUSKBN1YE2MQ
#IVF #Surrogacy #ART https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-ivf-cancer/children-conceived-from-frozen-embryos-at-increased-risk-for-certain-cancers-idUSKBN1YE2MQ
The next time someone tells you that #IVF and #surrogacy were created to help infertile women: the ART industry was developed on breeding livestock, and IVF developer Robert G. Edwards was an active member of Britain's Eugenics Society. https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/eugenic-legacy-nobel-ivf/
The US is trafficking children and women's bodies internationally:
"An estimated 200 to 400 international babies born to American surrogates who have been stranded in the U.S. in recent months due to COVID-19"
#SexNotGender https://www.chicagotribune.com/lifestyles/ct-life-chinese-babies-stranded-in-america-07212020-20200722-mi3kk2jokvewrl5rzjqjr6yt74-story.html
"An estimated 200 to 400 international babies born to American surrogates who have been stranded in the U.S. in recent months due to COVID-19"
#SexNotGender https://www.chicagotribune.com/lifestyles/ct-life-chinese-babies-stranded-in-america-07212020-20200722-mi3kk2jokvewrl5rzjqjr6yt74-story.html
"These women can suffer extreme pain and contract illnesses, such as OHSS, which can lead to strokes or heart attacks. A three-time commercial surrogate mother, Brooke Brown, died due to placental rupture, as did the twins she was bearing." https://womensenews.org/2019/05/handmaids-and-jezebels-new-york-must-not-legalize-harm/
In Korea, couples without male heirs used surrogate mothers called ssi-baji. If one of these women had a boy, she handed him over to the client. If she had a girl, she kept the child and received a smaller fee. Her daughter then became a ssi-baji as well. https://www.bioedge.org/mobile/view/the-tide-turns-in-the-international-surrogacy-market/13515
China banned all forms of #surrogacy in 2001 due to concerns poor women were being exploited.
The pandemic has revived the black market inside China.
"Baby dens” with dozens of newborns in orphanages or apartments have been found.
#SexNotGender https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2020/09/22/world/coronavirus-surrogates-families/
The pandemic has revived the black market inside China.
"Baby dens” with dozens of newborns in orphanages or apartments have been found.
#SexNotGender https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2020/09/22/world/coronavirus-surrogates-families/
