Human Matters with Sami Parker: The 'human baby market' of surrogacy

In a recent episode of Human Matters with Sami Parker, a video series powered by Live Action, Parker examines the ethics of surrogacy, comparing the artificial reproductive industry to a train that has traveled to an "ethical nightmare land" far beyond its original destination.

Key Takeaways:

• In the latest episode of Human Matters with Sami Parker, Parker discusses the problems with surrogacy.

• She notes that while surrogacy likely started as a place of compassion, it quickly led to the exploitation of women and the commodification of children.

• Being pro-life, she says, means recognizing that children have dignity and rights.

• She calls on pro-lifers to reject reproductive practices that intentionally separate children from their parents.

The Details:

The Baby Market Is Already Here

Host Sami Parker opens by showing clips and headlines highlighting how babies have been exploited through surrogacy arrangements. Those headlines, she says, are not isolated cases, but rather a natural consequence of treating children as products rather than people.

"We did not board the surrogacy train at baby marketplace," she says. "We got on at the stop that sounded reasonable and compassionate when there was an infertile couple and this altruistic woman who could be paid a little bit for her troubles.... But there's this thing about trains... the train will keep moving down the line."

She points out that some of the first critics of surrogacy were early feminist writers, including Gena Corea, who warned decades ago that reproductive technologies would commercialize women's bodies and eventually pave the way for artificial wombs and other forms of human manufacturing. Those predictions now appear increasingly plausible as researchers pursue technologies capable of creating eggs and sperm in laboratories.

Parker notes that though Corea was right in many respects, Corea failed to identify the primary victim of surrogacy arrangements: the child.

Zoom In:

Parker acknowledges the heartbreak of infertility, but argues that compassion for adults must never override the dignity and rights of children.

She explains:

"But being pro-life does not simply mean wanting more babies to be born. Being pro-life means recognizing that every human being has inherent dignity from the moment of conception. And therefore it is wrong and should be illegal to kill them. But in recognizing that, it means that children are not products — they are people. Which also means that adults don’t have a right to children. They aren’t owed children. 

Parker then points to teachings from the Catholic Church, as well as leaders from various Christian denominations who have condemned surrogacy as a violation of the dignity of both women and children.

"The Christian case against surrogacy," she says, "begins with the truth that every human being is made in the image of God."

The Bottom Line:

Parker calls on pro-life advocates to remain consistent in defending every human life while rejecting reproductive practices that intentionally separate children from their biological parents. The child should always be treated as a person, not a product.

"It is good to have compassion for people who want children, but your compassion must always prioritize the rights of the most vulnerable person in the situation, which is always the child," she said. "And if our compassion fails to center the children and their rights above the desires of adults, this train will keep going. And we aren’t even sure how terrifying the final destination looks yet."