Sperm and egg-donation, combined with surrogate-motherhood for hire, has become a big business. Companies are using the draw of eugenics, promising babies custom-manufactured to their customers’ specifications.
Multi-millionaire Barrie Drewitt-Barlow is laying claim to having “the best-looking baby in the world.” Not in the sense that every new parent thinks that, but literally, because this is what he paid for. He and his husband already have the distinction of using a surrogate mother to become the UK’s first officially-recognized same-sex parents. Drewitt-Barlow, who is divorcing that husband and has taken up with the former boyfriend of his artificially-conceived daughter, has a new baby. He says of her,
‘We couldn’t be happier with the way she looks. In all fairness, we expected nothing else. After all, we scoured the planet for the best-looking egg donor we could find and $100,000 later (£77,000) we got the donor we wanted and the best-looking baby anyone could ever want.’
Not all customers are so satisfied. The Atlantic tells the tale of a woman who purchased the sperm of a man who was billed to be a moral paragon and a genius who spoke four languages. It turns out that the man, whose genetic material she used to conceive her child and who has fathered 35 other children, has a criminal record and mental problems. She is suing the sperm company for fraud leading to “wrongful birth.”
In my book Post-Christian: A Guide to Contemporary Thought and Culture [paid link], I delve into the world of sperm, egg, and surrogacy trafficking, where those in the market for a baby can peruse online listings that read like personal ads on a dating or marriage site. (Here is an example.) Of course, there is no dating or marriage or any relationship whatsoever, just individuals selling their ability to be a parent without any intention of caring for their own children.
Those who do so are also being exploited by the companies that profit through this trade. If Mr. Drewitt-Barlow paid $100,000–which is pretty much the going rate for a baby, the surrogate mother was probably paid $50,000. That isn’t all that much for nine months of pregnancy and having to give up her baby as soon as he or she is delivered. When an egg-donor is used, with the conceived child implanted into the womb of a third party, she might make as much as $9,000, though the clinic would sell her egg for nearly three times that. The sperm donor probably would have received $125 per donation, which the clinic would sell to the woman attracted to his profile for around $1,000.
I document all of this–as well as the utter, pathetic sadness of it all, including heart-wrenching accounts of children so conceived yearning to find their biological parents and donors meeting the children they had conceived but never known–in my book.
The Atlantic article about the lying sperm donor asks what the child would think about being considered a “wrongful birth.” It also observes that not know how one’s child will turn out and not being in complete control is at the essence of parenthood.
I also appreciate the discussion of the “best-looking baby in the world” by the Federalist‘s Libby Emmons, who concludes,
With his money and resources, Drewitt-Barlow was able to buy the components of a child, then rent space in a woman’s body to put it all together. He wanted a beautiful baby girl, and he made sure he got one. He is celebrated for effectively commodifying human life, cheapening parenthood, and the outright degrading practice of trafficking in women and children.
Image by Tumisu from Pixabay
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