Taking on reproductive justice by Rebecca Liaw, Business Intern

 The author of this article is writing about a lecture she attended given by Dr. Hille Haker at LMU. The topic was on the ethics and morality of assisted reproduction. There is definitely a growing voice out there questioning these issues, seeing this restores my faith in people!

Points that the author made that I wanted to highlight are:

"Did you know an egg donor can make between $5,000 and $10,000 for an embryo egg “donation?” Young women, particularly those struggling to pay college bills, are scouted for in magazines and newspapers to donate their eggs or be surrogate mothers."

" As Haker said, egg donors and surrogate mothers make the autonomous choice to offer their services, but they often are ot aware of the severe psychological trauma that can arise from anything from birth complications to having to finally turn over their child to even the nagging thoughts that arise years later."

"These procedures, in theory, should be freeing; the ability to pre-screen for health issues allows for parents to pick and choose which pregnancies are essentially “worth it.”" I'd like to point out that this industry increases the number of abortions that are performed. Some are due to the genetic screening, but it's also due to the fact that too many embryos are transferred over to surrogates which causes a need to selective fetal reduction to ensure a safe pregnancy. This is done to ensure a higher success rate of pregnancy since the process is costly. I won't state my personal views on abortion, but should we be creating situations intentionally for abortions? 


"To paraphrase Dr. Haker, as a society, we have failed the parents and children of our world because we have forgotten to acknowledge and forgive. We should remember the mothers and fathers, weary yet hopeful, waiting in the glow of anticipated parenthood for their children. We need to recognize surrogate mothers, most often young women at the ends of their rope, but with enough strength and grace to offer themselves and their children. And we need to remember the children who, from whatever circumstances of surrogacy, adoption and assistance, will grow into young men and women who might desire to find their origins of their conception into being.
When society overlooks actual people in favor of “high” morals and standards, that is when we have failed as a people."

This is where I don't fall o the same page as Dr. Haker. I think we as a society need to keep the high morals. The high morals are what would keep children safe. This is not at all to say that I don't empathize with the parents who are struggling to start there family. But as I've stated many times in my blog, please look to traditional adoption, or being a foster parent. Children are not a right, they are a blessing. When we put the message out their that we are entitled to have children, we are demeaning the rights of the people who are conceived this way to know their biology. One person's right should not outweigh another. 

For the full article please follow the link below.


http://www.laloyolan.com/opinion/taking-on-reproductive-justice/article_771780be-90fd-11e3-b9a1-0017a43b2370.html?fb_action_ids=10152288082152642&fb_action_types=og.recommends&fb_ref=.Uvj40CI9NJ8.like&fb_source=other_multiline&action_object_map=[412813648862844]&action_type_map=[%22og.recommends%22]&action_ref_map=[%22.Uvj40CI9NJ8.like%22]