THAI GOVERNMENT PLANS TO RE-OPEN ITS COMMERCIALLY EXPLOITIVE SURROGACY INDUSTRY

National Review

 

Thailand Plans to Reopen Exploitive Commercial Surrogacy Industry

By WESLEY J. SMITH

March 2, 2024 5:00 PM

 

Commercial surrogacy exploits poor women, particularly when it involves the destitute in developing countries. And it leads to terrible abuses. For example, in India, before commercial surrogacy for foreigners was outlawed, surrogates had to live in dormitories at the end of their pregnancies, and many were subjected to medically unnecessary caesarian sections. There are also instances of surrogate mothers — dehumanized as “gestational surrogates” in industry parlance — dying from complications of renting their wombs.

 

In Thailand, Australian biological parents refused to accept one of their twins because the baby had Down syndrome. Later, it was reported that the father had a history of sexually abusing children. A Japanese man fathered 12 children in this way, leading to the current outlawing of foreigners buying babies via Thai surrogate mothers.

 

Now, the leaders of Thailand are unlearning that hard lesson and planning to allow their poor women to be exploited via discount commercial surrogacy available to Americans and other foreigners. From the Daily Mail story:

 

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But now the deputy director-general for health, Arkhom Praditsuwan, says they are looking to loosen the restrictions again — although with surrogacies now monitored by a committee. It could be a boost to less wealthy American couples, with surrogacy in the country costing from as low as $10,000 in some cases — compared to as much as $170,000 in the states.

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Why, it’s like going to a Thai Costco for a baby! And don’t think that most of the money won’t go to surrogate recruitment agencies, as happened in India’s baby-buying industry.

 

Apologists for commercial surrogacy in developing nations claim that women make more money renting their gestational capacities than they ever could otherwise. Perhaps. But couldn’t the same be said of workers exploited for low pay in sweatshop conditions to make our running shoes, or of the exploitation of Congolese women and children who mine cobalt for use in rechargeable batteries?

 

Wrong is wrong. Gestational serfdom — or biological colonialism, if you will — is as immoral as allowing the rich to buy kidneys from the destitute. The Thai government should reconsider and stick with the current ban.