I never understood why any woman would volunteer to be a surrogate mother. Why would anyone carry another’s child? Or risk experiencing the mental or physical consequences of giving birth then having to give up the child that was inside one’s body for nine months? However, the same questions could be asked to any person giving up their body for human experimentation. Although these volunteers see financial incentives as their primary goal of becoming involved in surrogacy or human experimentation, there are other moral values that can come into play as well. For instance, Jennifer Cantor, a 34-year old woman with her own 8-year old daughter, claims that she gets pleasure from carrying a child, whether it is hers or not. She claims that there is no emotional attachment to the baby she gives birth to; she merely wants to help others who are unable to have children. In fact, there are an increasing number of American women – more since the attack on
The reasons for this dramatic increase during war time may be due to a number of causes. Perhaps the absence of the husband leaves women needing to find means of economic support. In fact, a surrogate mother can earn up to $20,000 to $25,000! However, as mentioned before, financial gains are often not the incentives for the surrogate mothers; noble values of benevolence and sympathy drive women like Jennifer Cantor to help other women find ways to have their own babies – those who derived from their own genes. Then, a question arises similar to the one raised concerning “guinea pigging” effect. Could the potential for “guinea pigging” and hence subtle coercion be eliminated by eliminating the financial incentives to surrogate mothers?
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