Surrogacy's dehumanizing effects can't be undone by laws regulating it

Babytree Surrogacy Agency's recent declarations about its “comprehensive compliance” with California laws and “full-service support” for surrogate mothers (depicting surrogacy as a regulated and compassionate means to parenthood) only serve to whitewash a dehumanizing industry that treats women as rentable vessels and babies as bespoke commodities. 

Key Takeaways:

• The surrogacy industry in California is profitable, with certain agencies choosing to focus on creating "diverse families" which creates children with the intent to deny them access to a biological mother and father.

• Though these agencies may boast of providing the best "care" for surrogates and "intended parents," the reality is that surrogacy does damage to surrogates and the children they carry. IVF ends a vast number of human lives due to the process itself.

• Adult desires, not the natural rights of children, are prioritized by surrogacy agencies like Babytree and other fertility industry agencies.

The Details:

At the moment, the surrogacy industry in California is flourishing under lax laws permitting pre-birth parentage orders, which Babytree has capitalized on to link "diverse families" — infertile couples, LGBTQ+ clients, and singles — with screened gestational carriers. 

The surrogacy agency boasts of providing holistic medical evaluations, psychological readiness checks, and legal contracts, all claiming to safeguard everyone participating in the surrogacy process. For instance, a press release published by USA Today reads:

The agency’s commitment to surrogate mother welfare reflects a fundamental understanding that successful surrogacy depends on creating environments where these women feel genuinely valued rather than simply utilized. By maintaining rigorous adherence to California surrogacy requirements while layering additional protections and support services, Babytree Surrogacy Agency ensures that women who choose to become surrogates experience journeys characterized by dignity, safety, and meaningful recognition of their contribution.

Notably, the agency has claimed to prioritize “safety, transparency, and personalized care” for its full-service gestational surrogacy services. The agency alleges that surrogates undergo "rigorous screening" for physical capability and emotional maturity, while intended parents enjoy “ongoing support” throughout the entire process.

Such an account seems to depict Babytree Surrogacy Agency as the gold standard for the surrogacy industry in California, with state laws ensuring intended parents' names appear on birth certificates pre-delivery with no mention of the identities of surrogate (birth) mothers.

Such language and legalese euphemizes a transaction: women gestate strangers' babies for pay — typically $50,000-$80,000 in California — while agencies charge $130,000 to $250,000 in total fees. 

Reality Check:

Critics of surrogacy, notably the United Nations (UN) Special Rapporteur Reem Alsalem, have condemned the practice as “large-scale violence” targeting women, turning bodies into profit-generating machines. After all, surrogacy contracts may determine diets, bed rest, and even the anti-life practice of selective reductions for multiples, removing autonomy for surrogate mothers under the pretext of a contract and "support." 

Some of the realities of IVF and surrogacy include:

• hormone injections

• numerous embryo transfers (with failure rates up to 70% per cycle)

• cesarean risks

• increased risks of preeclampsia due to non-genetic pregnancies (as in the case of surrogacy and donor eggs)

Psychological screenings cannot stop surrogate mothers (or infants) from feeling attachment or postpartum trauma; forced handoffs after birth to “intended parents” can deeply hurt surrogate mothers and babies facing separation trauma after birth. 

Some surrogate mothers have revealed that they felt like "human ovens" who were carrying others’ babies, with their trauma and grief downplayed as “professional separation.”

In light of such realities, Babytree Surrogacy Agency’s claims to promote “full-service gestational surrogacy” may sound appealing, but such industry spin actually masks the reality of dehumanizing economically and psychologically vulnerable women by pushing them into  high-risk surrogate arrangements for monetary compensation.

What's Happening:

Babytree's services appear to favor client milestones — such as prenatal updates and delivery logistics — over surrogate mothers’ emotional and physical needs, clearly prioritizing 'intended parents'.

Children lose their ties to their birth mothers who carried them, and the precursor to surrogacy, IVF, disposes of “spare” or “unwanted” embryos (millions frozen or destroyed yearly) at the behest of adult desires.

These adult desires rule the day; Japanese 'intended parents' have ditched Indian surrogacy babies, while across the Pacific, men have fathered many babies via serial surrogate arrangements. 

Yet Babytree's “ethical practices” gloss over the negative ramifications of surrogacy in favor of touting "inclusion" at the expense of children. Arrangements facilitate single parenthood-by-design or even polyamorous setups unlimited by biology, disrupting family structures indispensable for children to thrive and grow. 

Babytree claims California is a legal haven for surrogacy with pricing, attorney-coined surrogacy contracts, and clinic partnerships as proof of responsibility. But these regulations and contracts only enable the highly dehumanizing practice of surrogacy, instead of preventing its deleterious and exploitative consequences. The farce of Babytree’s apparent compliance to California’s permissive surrogacy laws fails to address any of the risks, ramifications, and exploitation of surrogacy itself.

The Bottom Line:

True compassion for couples facing infertility struggles and vulnerable women include promoting adoption, fertility awareness, and marital intimacy, upholding the sanctity of every human's life from conception.

Unlike surrogacy's dehumanization of children, adoption honors the child's origins as agencies screen for parental and child readiness, while counseling supports birth parents who may have no other choice but to place their children with adoptive families.

Embracing life-affirming alternatives to surrogacy opts out of surrogacy's dehumanization of women and children. Every child deserves a natural welcome, and every birth mother is deserving of support during and after pregnancy.