It is a sad miscellaneous news item, such as the surrogacy business can produce. Social media got wind of the story via Cafemom which reported about a couple who renegated their surrogate baby. The news was first published by Reddit, but it was deleted due to the emotion and controversy it aroused.
In the United States, where surrogacy is tolerated in several states, an American couple signed an agreement with an agency to hire a surrogate mother. The couple donated gametes for in vitro fertilization, but when they came to meet and pick up the newborn, the father says he had the distinct impression “that something was wrong”. On discovering the baby’s face, they found it had Asian features. According to them, this little baby with brown eyes and black hair did not look like its’ parents since they are both blonde with blue eyes. They decided to have a DNA test made. The results of the DNA test confirmed that the man is not the biological father.
An investigation later revealed that the agency had inadvertently used the sperm of another man to conceive the child. The couple then explained in a message that they have decided not to keep the baby and to put him up for adoption. “It’s not a question of his ethnic origin, we are just upset that the baby is not ours. Even if he was white, but not our baby, we would have been just as angry. The surrogate mother was heartbroken too when she found out what happened, but she cannot afford to keep the baby because she already has five children.”
Alliance VITA contends that wherever surrogacy is legally tolerated, it creates unfair and inextricable situations. This is why Alliance VITA continues to call for an international ban on surrogacy.
For further information:
International Surrogacy [Video Replay] – Webinar “The reality of surrogacy” – Alliance VITA
https://www.alliancevita.org/2022/03/replay-la-realite-de-la-gpa/Analyzing so-called “ethical” surrogacy, VITA 2021
