As a customer, they can buy an costly package at the agency that guarantees me a healthy child, and a sex that I choose. All embryos that are unfit are killed. If a kid with a disability comes into the planet and the client doesn't choice him up, the kid goes to the orphanage at best. We don't truly know what happens to those children that nobody wants," says Birgit Kelle, a columnist and author of books on feminism, sex and motherhood. Among them is simply a publication published by WECTORY entitled “Living Goods. The surrogacy manufacture – trafficking in human beings in the 21st century".
Why do you describe "substitution" as trafficking in 21st century people?
Because that's what human trafficking is. A kid is ordered from the catalogue, choosing individual elements. It's like ordering a car with the right options. The standard surrogacy procedure in the planet looks something like this. First, you pay the agency. Later in the catalog, you find a female to be an incubator – a device to deliver the product. From another catalog, the egg cell is selected and the 3rd possibly sperm is selected. You book peculiarly good genes, and erstwhile the kid is ready – you pay at the cash registry and collect the child. What else would you call it if it wasn't a trade where kids are in?
When was the thought born to make children a "living commodity" and legalize the surrogacy business? How did this gotta do with the legalisation of alleged monosexual unions by another countries?
Such ideas appear automatically erstwhile discipline creates fresh possibilities. The first step was artificial insemination in the sampler, which has been practiced since the 1980s. For a long time, novels about the future present a imagination in which people are produced in artificial incubators. So far, discipline cannot completely replace women. A female is inactive needed as a real incubator. Of course, attempts are made to grow children in an artificial uterus all the time.
The second is the collapse of the global adoption market, which occurred respective decades ago. It's a very grim story. present we know that thousands of children from Africa, Asia and Latin America, who were adopted in rich Western countries, were not orphans at all. They were taken or bought from their mothers. Since there was no specified "supply", another option had to be made to supply childless children with their dream. That's the option: it's a child's order from a female in exchange for money. This market, of course, is besides interesting for homosexual men. To them, it's almost the only way to get a baby. Homosexuals were not the origin of this market; but present they are utilizing it, and their share is constantly increasing.
What function do governments play in this? In the book, you describe in item how the German Government operates in this regard. On the 1 hand, it prohibits "substitution", but on the another hand it does not head buying children from abroad. Would you agree that specified an attitude is at least hypocritical?
Governments are very diverse on the subject. I think their motivations are different. For example, the largest marketplace in Europe exists in Ukraine, a country that already belonged to the most corrupt in the planet before the war. The government created Eldorado there for human traffickers. The D.A. practically does not act against agencies, even if there are problems. The surrogacy business guarantees an influx of money and abroad currency.
In the U.S. it was different: there the legalization of surrogacy, in almost all states, won liberal political forces and strong LGBT lobby. It was argued that everyone should have the right to a household and kid without discrimination. In Africa, on the another hand, surrogacy is simply a business of overeating corruption from which criminal groups profit. It is akin in Colombia.
Historically, this marketplace was created in Asian countries specified as Thailand and India. In the meantime, governments there have changed their policy by nearly 180 degrees, as it has been seen that rich Western customers have utilized thousands of women. 1 Thai politician put it in the words, "Our women are not incubators for the full world." There were conclusions from bad experiences.
Countries specified as Germany overlook specified bad things. That is why we have inconsistent legislation, and so do many another countries. On the 1 hand, surrogacy is prohibited in the country, but it is not hard for those who usage surrogacy abroad.
Is there specified a thing as “the right to a child”?
Of course not. Why should anyone have the right to another man? The effects of specified government would be absurd. How could the State warrant the right to a child? He besides has no right to sex or the right to procreate. Would you warrant me a sexual partner and a reproductive partner? With specified an idea, we would go on a completely incorrect path. Of course, it's a tragic situation erstwhile people can't have children. However, erstwhile 2 men cannot inseminate 1 another, just as 2 women cannot, there is no discrimination. Nor can a single individual get pregnant alone. It's just biology. It is not a question of justice; it simply is.
Very often, surrogacy is portrayed as a form of altruism – matrimony cannot have children, so they ask for the aid of another woman. However, you point out that specified cases are marginal in the full "substitution" industry, first. Secondly, even specified situations have nothing to do with altruism. Why?
Altruism is cited by those who want to exploit an exceptional situation in order to ignore evil. In England, for almost 30 years, altruistic surrogacy has been legal. However, women who choose to do so receive a compensation certificate of up to £25,000. That's the equivalent of an yearly wage in the low wage sector. That would be altruism. besides in this variant, they gain agencies, doctors, laboratories, clinics. It's a large enterprise, only it's called nicer. Even if we imagined a situation, possibly almost impossible, in which a female carries a kid for another man of pure love and without any financial interest, we should inactive ask: should this be allowed? Can a kid be donated to someone? Is that not how he is objectified? Isn't the kid entitled to his own mother? Even in specified a situation we decide above the head of the child, they are passed on to fresh owners, whom should be called parents from now on – and the kid itself should consider it a wonderful thing, so that the purchaser does not feel bad...
In the book, you ask the question respective times: “Why do you request a single kid of retirement age?” Yeah, why? After all, as you besides point out, there is simply a very advanced probability that specified a individual will not live to see the age of a child...
One may wonder if in any cases criminal motivations do not play a role. In many countries, police have handled specified matters. It's about people who tried to get a baby on the global market. For example, there was a situation in Thailand where rich men ordered 12 children at 1 time – respective times. In Russia, it was suspected that children were purchased specifically to collect organs from them. Therefore, only the country was restricted to the surrogacy so that the state could keep an eye on the children besides after their birth. If they went abroad, no 1 could know what happened to them.
Africa and Asia are believed to have a thriving illegal organ trafficking that is linked to surrogacy. In Latin America, there is simply a serious problem with the tens of thousands of children who are "lost". They are believed to have become sexual slaves. It makes it very easy to surrogate: forced prostitutes can have children that can then be sold. In Germany, a kid molester was arrested who ordered a boy in Cyprus to have a kid that he could sexually exploit. specified cases are besides known from the US. Clearly, whoever opens the gate to hell has no control over who passes through it.
One of the chapters of the book surviving Goods is devoted to “child bargaining”, which takes place annually in Germany in Berlin or Cologne. You took part in this kind of event as a writer in cognito Pretending to be an curious client. What shocked you most at this “party”?
How easy it is in Germany to order a child, though it is reportedly forbidden. It's just a perfectly average trade fair. You go from position to position, there are agencies everywhere that offer their product portfolio. In a fewer minutes, I received access to 2 data sets where, like on any dating site, I could view profiles of possible surrogates and cell donors. Until now, I receive e-mails with “special offer”, “spring promotion” or combined packages all month. “We do everything”, 1 agency from Ukraine assured me. There is no legal restriction. The agencies are ready to aid as a client to aid me circumvent German law. It's just a substance of money. Nobody cares about the baby – everything is done under the buyer.
The “child on order” must be perfect. If a “good” has a defect, it is eliminated. The book describes specified shocking cases. Why this obsession with having a “perfect child” from a surrogate?
When I pay, I want products without defects. I wouldn't buy a fresh car with scratches and dents. Regardless of the surrogate, we have long treated children with disabilities as a problem to avoid. In all Western countries, doctors advise mothers to have an abortion if there is any problem during pregnancy. In the case of surrogacy, it's a very fast process. The kids are getting bored and taking another test. As a rule, surrogates are already required in the contract to do so. There were cases where women didn't want to have an abortion. They even offered to keep the baby. They weren't allowed to.
As a customer, they can buy an costly package at the agency that guarantees me a healthy child, and a sex that I choose. All embryos that are unfit are killed. If a kid with a disability comes into the planet and the client doesn't choice him up, the kid goes to the orphanage at best. We don't truly know what happens to those kids that nobody wants.
Which countries and organisations are leading the way in surrogacy?
There is simply a immense number of agencies in the United States that have opened their branches in many countries across all continents. It is undoubtedly Ukraine in Europe. Despite the war, it remains the center and the largest marketplace in the inexpensive sector. Biotexcom, which controls more than half the market, is the front of the company. Rich customers from Europe frequently choose the USA, due to the fact that there are more legal safeguards there and you can immediately sign up as parents in the documentation. In any states, even 2 men can do it; then the kid officially has no mother. However, prices start at $100,000 per child. In Ukraine it is cheaper, the kid can be bought from 50 1000 euros. In Georgia – even cheaper, from 35 000 euro. There, however, a surrogate must first relinquish her rights as a mother. Besides, it's in the papers, and not everyone wants it. Plus, at least officially, there's no offer for homosexuals. However, no 1 knows what is happening in those markets over which no state or any justice strategy has control and officials are frequently corrupt.
What about “the rights of women”? On the 1 hand, feminists shout that women are not incubators, that women should be liberated from patriarchal oppression of childbirth. On the another hand, it turns out – as you say in the surviving Good – that it is feminists who very frequently usage the “services” of the surrogate industry. In the name of the liberation of women, are they even more objectified?
The feminist movement is profoundly divided on the subject of surrogacy. How can you criticize the fact that women are being utilized erstwhile it is in rich countries quite a few old and rich people from Hollywood usage Western methods due to the fact that they're besides old to pay for young women? How can 1 criticize propaganda that a kid does not request a parent erstwhile the rights of homosexual men have been fought as part of the LGBT agenda? How can you criticize forcing surrogates to have an abortion erstwhile for years it has been said that abortion is nothing wrong? Besides, many women besides benefit from the surrogacy – they are perpetrators, they profit from it. Men cannot be held solely responsible, as feminism tends to do.
Will the next step be to implement Aldous Huxley's imagination from the “New Wonderful World”?
Scientists are already working on it. They do experiments on animals. For a long time mice have been reared in artificial uterus until the 3rd month. It's a imagination from Frankenstein's lab: a kid mill where a female is no longer needed to have a baby. Technological improvement is frightening. Man can do things for a long time that are not good for humanity. Therefore, the question of what ethical standards and red lines will be in place in discipline is all the more important. As an example of the surrogacy market, slavery is the consequence if morality is rejected. It is essential to prohibit surrogacy not only due to the fact that it means utilizing women and treating children as objects. This must besides be done due to the fact that it will harm us all if we let unscrupulous businessmen and scientists to decide how the future man will be born and raised.
Thank you for talking to me.
Tomasz Kolanek
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