A Left-Over Thought

A short post today, really just a left-over thought that didn’t make it into yesterday’s post.

I think part of the reason why people reject the idea of altruistic surrogacy is that they don’t believe women can make and honor a pledge to turn over the child they give birth to. That is, there’s a perception an enforceable contract is necessary because of her own accord, a woman would frequently change her mind and keep the child. I suppose people might reach this conclusion based on some assumptions about the nature of the bond that would arise during pregnancy. If the bond were very strong, then it might lead a woman to renege on even the most explicit agreement, requiring court enforcement to ensure compliance.

But if there is such a strong bond that women would repudiate their commitments to the intending parents, doesn’t that make surrogacy seem even more problematic? Certainly in the instances of outsourcing, where there is reason to think women are engaged in surrogacy as a tactic of survival, it seems far more barbaric if you believe there is such a powerful bond created during pregnancy.

And if there isn’t such a strong bond, then shouldn’t we reasonably expect women to behave honorably, especially in a matter of such obvious importance to all concerned? To put this another way, if one doesn’t believe there is such a strong bond, then isn’t the reason to reject surrogacy simply a matter of distrusting women?