Surrogacy has turned unborn babies into designer handbags. A fun luxury product, made to order and customizable. If the buyer determines their order has an “imperfection” they just throw it away or ask for a replacement.
The issue is that unborn babies are not handbags.
Recently a story made national news surrounding baby Gabriel, born of a surrogate mother who saved his life.
It all started when McKenna West decided to become a surrogate as a way to make extra money and provide for her family. She believed that it was an exciting opportunity which would help a couple start a family while not keeping her away from her own family.
She signed the contract and began receiving funds from the couple who had hired her. Things were going according to plan until the moment that baby Gabriel was diagnosed with hypoplastic left heart syndrome, a rare but very treatable condition.
As part of the contract she signed, McKenna had agreed to a clause which required her to abort the baby in the event of an anomaly. She was told by the surrogacy agency that this sort of thing was rare.
McKenna began doing research and found a hospital in Dallas with a 100% success rate for the three surgeries that baby Gabriel would need and relayed this information to the hiring couple.
Unfortunately, the couple did not want what they must have viewed as “damaged goods.” As if they were making a simple Amazon return the couple demanded that the baby be killed.
Baby Gabriel was 22 weeks’ gestation when this couple began demanding his murder.
The earliest premature baby to survive was born at just 21 weeks.
By the time McKenna could find an abortion facility willing to kill Gabriel, the appointment was for a 24-week abortion. Though she initially made the appointment, she could not follow through with it.
This resulted in the couple who had hired her demanding that she pay back the money they had paid her and suing her.
McKenna traveled to Texas where Attorney General Ken Paxton intervened, securing a court order ensuring that Gabriel received the medical care he needed once born. She is currently under a restraining order and cannot see or hold Gabriel, though she is told that he is healthy and on a path to receiving the needed medical care.
While we are all immensely grateful that baby Gabriel was not killed, this highlights the serious problems with the commodification of children through surrogacy. Children are not toys to be bought or sold. Since when can one human being’s life be dependent upon a contract? Does a baby boy deserve to die because the couple that paid for him decides he is not good enough?
In another case that made national news not long ago, a gay couple sued a surrogate because she refused to abort over a minor birth defect and cleft lip!
These babies are not second-class citizens. They are not sub-human. They are not products to be bought, sold, or returned. They are innocent human beings that have a fundamental right to life.
Defending Life,
Victor Nieves
President, Life Issues Institute
Leave a Reply