Wombs for Rent: Surrogacy scams

Tomorrow NOW will broadcast an expose of scams in the surrogate motherhood industry, supported by my friends at the Nation Institute. Old school investigative reporting meets cutting edge medical technology:

Many European countries, from Spain to Germany to the Netherlands, have banned surrogate motherhood. But in the United States it's the Wild West -- an almost completely unregulated industry that has left some surrogate mothers with thousands of dollars in unpaid medical bills and would-be parents with pilfered bank accounts. "If you compare surrogacy to buying a used car," says one expert in the field, "there are many more rules when you buy a used car."

Investigative Fund reporters Habiba Nosheen and Hilke Schellmann traveled the country speaking with surrogate mothers, agency operators, and intended parents to expose the human costs of this lack of regulation and produced a segment for NOW on PBS, "Wombs for Rent," which takes a close look at one of the industry's many bad actors, SurroGenesis.

"Wombs for Rent," which was supported by the Investigative Fund at The Nation Institute, airs Friday, September 18, at 8:30 p.m. in New York City. Go to http://www.pbs.org/now/sched.html for broadcast times nationwide.

Comments

[Clara]

Surrogacy is legal in Netherlands. Don't say craps !

[Lindsay Beyerstein]

Unpaid surrogacy is legal in the Netherlands, but paid surrogacy is against the law.

[Fitz]

Can we regulate surrogacy in this country if we wanted to? Is it not a violation of the right to privacy as outlined in Roe v Wade?

[Lindsay Beyerstein]

Non-issue, Fitz. Nobody wants to ban surrogacy in the U.S. We can enforce existing laws to prevent surrogate-hirers from defrauding and abusing the women who carry their babies. That's what needs to happen.

[cfrost]

a violation of the right to privacy

Yes, of course, the bogus notion of a "right to privacy" that's nowhere mentioned in the constitution and is killing babies as we speak. In a right to life utopia the womb cops will finally stop all this baby killin' when one's privates are no longer private.

[parse]

The right to privacy not mentioned in the Constitution? How about the Ninth Amendment: The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people. Rights don't have to be specifically enumerated to be mentioned.