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We are the buyers, we need to show solidarity and stop this industry while we can. Now it is time for Europe to take responsibility. India and Thailand do not want their female citizens to become the baby factories of the world. The only thing she gets is the halo of altruism, which is a very low price for the effort and can only be attractive in a society where women are valued for how much they sacrifice, not what they achieve. She is still used as a vessel, even if told she is an angel. She has to change her behaviour and risk infertility, a number of pregnancy-related problems, and even death. It demands of the woman to carry a child for nine months and then give it away. In reality, “altruistic” surrogacy means that a woman goes through exactly the same thing as in commercial surrogacy, but gets nothing in return. In that case, the less she is paid, the less she is exploited. As if exploitation only consisted in giving the woman money. Footnote 51 It addresses fundamental issues of jurisdiction, applicable law and recognition and enforcement of judgments. In any case, the notion of “altruistic” surrogacy – apart from being a red herring, since it barely happens in reality – has a very strange ideological underpinning. Private international law concerns itself with disputes involving a foreign element. One cannot, says the inquiry, expect a woman to sign away her rights to a baby she has not even seen nor got to know yet – this in itself denotes undue pressure. The inquiry also says that there is evidence that surrogates still get paid under the table, which is the case in Britain. International experience shows the opposite – citizens of countries such as the US or Britain, where the practice of surrogacy is widespread, tend to dominate among foreign buyers in India and Nepal. There is no proof, says the inquiry, that legalising “altruistic” surrogacy would do away with the commercial industry. The Swedish inquiry refutes this argument. Maybe she is doing it out of generosity, for a friend, a daughter or a sister. If the mother is not being paid, there is no exploitation going on. To save surrogacy from accusations like this, some resort to talking of so-called “altruistic” surrogacy. No country allows the sale of human beings – yet, who cares, so long as we are served cute images of famous people and their newborns? It is shocking to see how quickly the UN convention on the rights of the child can be completely ignored. The west has started outsourcing reproduction to poorer nations, just as we outsourced industrial production previously. Where a mother is nothing, deprived even of the right to be called “mum”, and the customer is everything. Where babies are tailor-made to fit the desires of the world’s rich. Surrogacy may have been surrounded by an aura of Elton John-ish happiness, cute newborns and notions of the modern family, but behind that is an industry that buys and sells human life.
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