Press Play with Madeleine Brand
A Surrogacy Saga
Surrogacy is the Wild West of reproductive law in the U.S. Take this story for example : A Georgia man hired a California woman as a surrogate. She became pregnant with triplets. The man, who is 50, single and deaf, wasn’t sure he’d want or be able to care for three babies.
By Madeleine Brand • • 1 min readSurrogacy is the Wild West of reproductive law in the U.S. Take this story for example: A Georgia man hired a California woman as a surrogate. She became pregnant with triplets. The man, who is 50, single and deaf, wasn’t sure he’d want or be able to care for three babies. The surrogacy contract stipulates that he could request a selective reduction, i.e. an abortion of one or more of the fetuses. But even though she signed the contract, the surrogate refused to do that because she’s anti-abortion. Now she wants to keep one or maybe all of the babies, saying the man who hired her is unfit to be the father. Her lawyer is seeking to overturn the California law on surrogacy, saying it’s unconstitutional. The story illustrates the lack of standards and regulations governing the for-profit surrogacy industry – especially here in California, land of “Octomom” Nadya Suleman.
