THE brave new world of commercial reproduction creates a welter of interesting stories for journalists. There is never a dull day for the news media as long as the child-production factories, with their sleek labs and carpeted waiting rooms, roll along. Engineering human life is extremely complex and therefore extremely interesting. For instance, Cathy Lynn Grossman, (beaming in the photo above) of USA Today, reported earlier this week on the legal “challenges” involved in the cold-blooded, high-tech market for children. Who will be called a mother when one woman provides the eggs and another the womb? It is extremely complex and therefore extremely interesting. It was as if the beaming Grossman were reporting on the latest exciting app for IPhones. We are told the various legal and commercial maneuvers two homosexual men go through to procure twin girls, with the only drawback being that it is all so complex. She wrote: Read More »

JENNIFER LAHL at the Center for Bioethics and Culture reacts to the news that Mitt Romney’s eldest son, Tagg, hired a surrogate mother to bear twins, his fifth and sixth children, who were born last week. Lahl writes that she is “shocked and disgusted.” Surrogacy is commercial exploitation even if the hired mother is an enthusiastic client, she argues. Her words of reproach and horror are wonderful to read.

Tagg (Tagg?!) and his wife, Jen, had hired the same surrogate for the birth of their first child. It is unclear why. They also conceived their third child through IVF.

Surrogacy is fully legal in the United States. The Canadian Supreme Court ruled that surrogacy “devalues human life and degrades those who choose to participate.”