Surrogate ordered to abort 1 triplet

[ESF]

lexus and scout8 - thank you for your thoughtful responses. I do think you make some good points, however, ultimately, I think contractual enforcement against the surrogate is ripe for way too many ethical issues for me to think that this is something for which there can be an enforceable contract. Perhaps there is some regulatory scheme that can be put in place, but I'm skeptical that any laws could adequately address all the unique personal situations that can arise.

My hugs and well wishes go out to anyone who is or has been put in this difficult situation.

[asdfjkl]

Dec 18, 2015 13:52:13 GMT -5 downtoearth said:

Dec 18, 2015 12:32:51 GMT -5 asdfjkl said:

One of the reasons that surrogacy contracts are disfavored is because pregnancy and the situations around it are so highly individual that you really cannot know what you would feel or do until you are in that situation.  It is one thing to say, "Yeah, I think I'd be okay with selective reduction."  It's another thing to find yourself in a situation where you are confronted with the reality of what that means, what part you would be playing in terminating that potential person, whether you are complicit in some way.  Not to mention the outstanding points that ESF made about how truly freely this woman may have entered into this contract.  I actually think the contract should be unenforceable. I think it's unconscionable, that there was likely a gross disparity in bargaining power and even without that, entering into a contract in which you affirmatively agree to have an abortion in any circumstance seems like an unenforceable contract.  I don't even like the precedent being set that it is enforceable.  

Why is this?  I mean, I guess I don't understand how you can't regulate it as a business transaction?  You can't just let it not get any regulation or basis, right?  That would be worse.

Other life contracts are messy also - wills, living wills, even business partnerships, but we let those contracts go.  Plus, it's hard b/c if the embryo is not the surrogates living tissue, it's a gray line, but still a line has to be drawn as to who gets to make medical decisions for that tissue and who gets to make medical decisions for the surrogate.  Is a selective abortion a medical decision for a woman or an embryo or both?  How would we feel if the woman wanted to selectively abort one fetus for health concerns and the surrogates didn't want her to since there wasn't a health issue yet? 

We do not allow people to enter into all kinds of contracts.  I think this is where you will probably see all the lawyers going "Uhhh... NO." and everyone else saying, "Well, she shouldn't have entered into a contract if she didn't like the terms."  That's just not the way contracts work.  Some contracts are unenforceable.  There are all kinds of reasons for contracts to be unenforceable but one of them is that the matter being contracted about is such that there is no way to make the terms fair or just.  Those contracts are called "unconscionable."  A contract to give a baby up for adoption would be an unenforceable contract (now by statute in most places, but the rationale is still unconscionability).  Contracts to use someone as a sex slave - unconscionable.  Contracts to allow one's self to be tortured in exchange for new shoes.  No.  I  mean, we don't even allow people to make purchases on contract where the value exchange is too disparate.  So, a contract that says, "And the prospective mother gets to choose whether or not surrogate must undergo abortive procedures for selective reduction..." gets a big ol' fat NO from me.  

Also, there is no gray line about who gets to make medical decisions for the surrogate.  That is a bright line.  The surrogate gets to make decisions about the surrogate and an abortion is, at this stage, a decision about the surrogate.  If she wanted to selectively reduce for her own anticipated health, I would support that as well.  She is not a vessel.  She is a person. Fully.  Completely.  Entirely.  An autonomous person.