Surrogacy Reaches the Supreme Court
Women for hire to produce babies? Is this not the tip of the iceberg on human trafficking, prostitution and modern day slavery?
In such a bustling global marketplace, it becomes easy to dehumanize the women and babies involved. In fact, the US government via the State Department, in conjunction with the fertility industry, has been trying to get an international treaty passed that would facilitate the global surrogacy industry.
The importance of this case cannot be overstated. If the Court decides to hear it, it will signal that the country’s highest judicial body recognizes that surrogacy raises serious ethical and constitutional issues. Its decision could be a game changer, with both national and international implications.
Most Americans probably do not know that the US is driving the surrogacy industry globally, on both the supply and demand sides. On the supply side, the US is second worldwide only to India in the supply of surrogates, many of whom are military wives.
Among those who study the issue, it is estimated that between 40 and 50 percent of surrogate pregnancies in the US are commissioned by foreign buyers. There is a good reason for this: of the top commercial surrogacy markets in the world, only the US and Ukraine have not passed prohibitory legislation on it.
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