The LA Times certainly brings attention to the culture wars with a series it has run this week about what 2 gay men did to get a baby:
...they had decided to have a child through a gestational surrogacy arrangement. They would pay one woman to provide her eggs and then, after fertilizing them in vitro with their sperm, pay another woman to carry the resulting embryos to term.
Section one is here. (To avoid having to register in to see following pages, click on the "one page" choice at the bottom.)
By and large, the article strives for a very non judgment tone, with lines like this:
It was a quest that would take them to the frontiers of medicine, bioethics, technology and the law, as well as to the front lines of the culture wars.
And:
Rather than creating a life in the privacy of a bedroom, Chad and David would plot this conception in law offices, doctors' suites and Internet chat rooms. It would take a village to manufacture their child.
Why did they chose this method of getting a baby:
They had considered adoption, but Chad, 33, and David, 35, wanted to participate more fully in the process of bringing a child into the world. They longed to see the first ultrasonic images of a tiny pumping heart and even to provide coaching in the maternity ward, just like straight fathers.
Why did they decide on such a complicated procedure (rather, say, than impregnating a volunteer mother)? Because this method reduces the chances of the mother making claim to any parental rights (the child is not genetically hers). So, take the riskiest path possible for this manufactured child, hey boys?
Despite the writer's efforts, some creepiness gets through:
For weeks, they had evaluated virtually any woman who entered their field of view. One night, when David met friends at a Georgetown bar, a striking woman with olive skin and dark eyes asked him to dance. When he later told Chad how flattering it had been, Chad could only ask: "Do you think she would be our egg donor?"....
They didn't want to consider appearance at the exclusion of all else, but they couldn't deny, in the privacy of that room, that it mattered.
"You can't ignore it," David said. "I mean, who wants an ugly child?"
"David, some people would be happy with that," Chad scolded.
Did I say the article was non-judgement? This description of the young David, and the perfect nature of their relationship, goes beyong that:
David's materialism made friends roll their eyes. But beneath the Neiman Marcus veneer they found a razor intellect, a generous heart, an optimistic spirit, and an almost effortless charm. By the time David came to grips with his sexuality, a lacerating tongue had mellowed into a quick and often wickedly entertaining wit.
From the outset, Chad and David seemed perfect complements. David grounded Chad, and made him more secure. Chad softened David, and made him more sensitive.
(Look, even if it was a straight couple, you would have to question this in anything resembling journalism.) It wasn't even as if both of them had life long desires to be fathers:
It wasn't until Chad and David went to couples counseling in 2001 that David revealed he had serious reservations about being a parent. He liked their life as it was, he said, and he wasn't convinced he was the nurturing kind.
This section here just about sums up neatly the zenith of the commodification of reproduction that this story represents:
Now that the technology existed, they asked themselves, why shouldn't gay men have the same right as straight people to produce a genetic heir? All they lacked were eggs and a womb. As it turned out, they could buy the first and lease the second.
Chad gets his way. They don't have much luck:
It was their fifth attempt in 15 months to create a pregnancy through a gestational surrogacy arrangement. To get to this point, they had gone through two egg retrievals, 58 eggs, 43 embryos, two embryo freezes, three frozen embryo thaws, four failed embryo transfers, two surrogates and more than $100,000.
Part 2 of the story is here.
Long story short: Chad's sister ends up being the surrogate (how perfectly liberal this family must be). What's more, it's twins.
Happy ending? No way. Babies born at 24 weeks. Chad and David rush to hospital. Of course, they are the perfect grieving parents:
It didn't take long for the hospital staff to conclude that Chad and David were more devoted than many parents who passed through the unit.
Both babies die. Teary scenes by everyone, because, you know, they are just such a loving couple.
Chad and David are trying again. Through double implantation again. Did I mention that they are both Christians?
I find this story just appalling on so many levels it is hard to know where to begin. I don't think I will even try.
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