Mothers

To the Editors of The Crimson:

In his opinion piece entitled "Mommie Dearest," Steven Lichtman followed almost all his fellow journalists and ignored one of the most basic questions raised by the issue of surrogate motherhood: Do Americans wants to be pioneers in a modern-day baby business? Slavery, I've always thought, was abolished over 100 years ago. Yet today, our society is contemplating--allowing, for the time being--the legalization of baby-buying.

There is a moral issue at stake here which easily supercedes all the politics "Feminists" and "the Church" can come up with. Supporters of surrogacy insists that a surrogate contract is no different from any other. You give me $10,000, I'll give you a baby. Think about that. You give me $10,000, I'll give you a baby. Most contracts make allowances, even, for the abortion of the fetus if it is medically imperfect; no one, after all, wants to buy defective merchandise. The surrogate mother promises "not to form or attempt to form a parent-child relationship." The baby, remember, is not her. The surrogate, say supporters, is selling not the baby, really, but the "use of her womb." She is nothing more than a producer, the prospective "parents" her consumer.

But can we really ignore the product? Can we--will we--allow ourselves to take capitalism to its extreme? Will we all become straight-line economists, caring only for supply and demand and giving not a thought to what the supply and demand is for? Is the surrogate mother's child really comparable (let alone analogous) to a work of art? A work of art may be a part of the artist who creates it, but it surely is not human. No matter how beautiful, it will not grow into adulthood, complete with a psyche of its own. If he insists on using the analogy, will Mr. Lichtman also argue that, like a human child, a work of art is in itself affected by its "owner"? Probably not, because after all, a work of art is a thing, while a human baby most definitely isn't. We are allowed to buy things. Do we want to be allowed to buy human beings?

Americans must learn that--contrary, perhaps, to popular belief--we cannot always have everything we want; some things are simply not for sale. Please, let's put human beings on the top of the list. Melanie Berger '89