In a recent Wall Street Journal, Thomas Frank responds to New York Times reporter Alex Kuczynski’s personal account of hiring a surrogate mother.
Actually, “responds to” is probably not the right phrase -- it’s more like “rips apart.”
Thomas Frank writes:
"Surrogate motherhood has been the subject of much philosophical and political dispute over the years.
"To summarize briefly, it is a class-and-gender minefield. When money is exchanged for pregnancy, some believe, surrogacy comes close to organ-selling, or even baby-selling.
"It threatens to commodify not only babies, but women as well, putting their biological functions up for sale like so many Jimmy Choos.
"If surrogacy ever becomes a widely practiced market transaction, it will probably make pregnancy into just another dirty task for the working class, with wages driven down and wealthy couples hiring the work out because it's such a hassle to be pregnant."
