I just heard about it too. Surrogacy is still illegal in this country, no? There are only eight countries that accept the surrogacy process in the world currently, whilst still not being completely legal.

I hear that Mike and his partner have gone to Southeast Asia to find a surrogate. I really don't know what the two of them are thinking. Adopting a child is a good option too, why would they run that risk?

Of course, given that there is a broad spectrum of things involved in surrogacy. From legality to scientific ethics, from social justice to resource distribution, it really makes your head hurt. For infertile couples, they really need this technique to make their families complete, so the legalization of surrogacy is an issue that urgently needs to be discussed in the public arena.

Yeah, in terms of the power of the surrogates to make decisions about their own lives, feminists have always hoped for the legalization of surrogacy. They emphasize the complete autonomy that women should have in making decisions about their own body. They think that, for whatever objective, women should be able to make their own autonomous choices on the basis of their own thinking, including choosing to be a surrogate mother.

Although you can say that, normally the cost of surrogacy is quite expensive. So even if surrogacy is legalized, this policy would be unable to look after the needs of infertile women from all classes. At the same time, does it really count as "autonomy" when due to economic need, middle and lower class women chose to become surrogates.

As to this point, I think, on the contrary, that we can make reference to the regulations in countries like the UK, which forbid commercial surrogacy. So the surrogacy process is undertaken completely of one's free will, and isn't a transactional process.

As far as I'm aware, a case happened in Thailand. At that time an Australian couple arranged through an intermediary organization for a 21-year-old Thai woman called Pattaramon Janbua to act as their surrogate. Early in the pregnancy it was discovered that of the two twins in Pattaramon's womb, one had Down syndrome.

As you might think, when they found out this information, the Australian couple asked her to have an abortion, but Pattaramon, because of her Buddhist faith, refused. After the birth, the Australian couple took the healthy child back to Australia to raise her and left the little boy Gammy with Down syndrome and congenital heart disease in Thailand.

After it happened, the Thai government amended the laws relating to surrogates, which punishes and forbids foreigners from coming to Thailand to find a surrogate. If you're found to be publicly in violation of this law, you'll be sentenced to 10 years in prison.

That's simply unbelieveable! Doesn't that just mean that the surrogate mother has to take responsibility for looking after Gammy? That's really not fair! It means that the rights of the surrogate mother aren't protected at all!