Surrogacy - so easy to condemn...

I've just been reading a piece by Julie Bindel about how selfish it is for couples to opt for surrogacy when there are so many children languishing in care who need adoptive and foster parents. I normally like her writing, but on this occasion she has managed to link people who choose to go to developing countries to find a surrogate mother with anyone else who needs help to get pregnant in one damning line referring to "expensive complicated medical interventions such as IVF and surrogacy".

I recently interviewed two women who'd had a surrogacy arrangement who agreed to speak to me because they wanted to give their response to the endlessly negative press that surrogacy receives. They were friends, and one had decided to help the other to have the child she longed for but couldn't carry (she'd had to have a hysterectomy for medical reasons). There was no exploitation and no money changed hands. They did it twice and it resulted in two children - now teenagers. They are still incredibly close friends and their families spend a lot of time together. Speaking to them was really moving - they were both strong, positive women who were very proud of the children and of what they'd done. The interview was published in the last edition of the Infertility Network UK magazine.

I'm also never entirely convinced by the argument that people are choosing to go to such lengths without considering adoption. Many couples who can't conceive would love to adopt a baby, but their chances of ever being able to do this are extremely slim as the numbers of babies adopted each year in this country are tiny. That's not due to a lack of couples who would jump for joy if they were able to adopt a baby - it's just that decisions about adoption are not often made so early in a child's life and can take years. It's not fair to blame couples who have fertility problems for what may be seen as shortcomings in the adoption process. Many of the children who need adoptive families are much older and have lived through extremely difficult times which can mean that they need experienced carers - and the adoption process is about finding the right adoptive parents for the child, not about making sure that people who might consider surrogacy or fertility treatment are able to adopt instead.

Of course, Julie Bindel is right that the exploitation of poor women in developing countries is utterly wrong and should be condemned - but it's a shame that she has muddied the waters by appearing to conclude that any surrogacy arrangement or even fertility treatment is somehow just as exploitative and wrong.

You can read her piece here