This event begins in 5 minutes, and will be live-tweeted by @JadeSerpentsCns from this account, using the hashtag #WhatsWrongWithSurrogacy. Please join us, or follow along!
The event has begun - Charlie is the chair of this webinar. She introduces the subject matter of surrogacy and says this presentation intends to provide a balance to the overly rosy picture painted in MSM. #WhatsWrongWithSurrogacy
She introduces the first speaker, Heather Harvey. She had worked on VAWG worldwide in public & NGO sectors - particular focus of her research women’s experiences in prostitution. She was instrumental in NIA’s response to the Law Commission’s consultation. #WhatsWrongWithSurrogacy
Heather is now speaking. She is explaining NIA and what it does, the issues it helps women with, and why it has engaged with the surrogacy debate. She explains it is currently illegal to pay for surrogacy in U.K., bar “reasonable expenses”. #WhatsWrongWithSurrogacy
She points out the issues with this when looking at what constitutes reasonable expense, and how this can be exploited when women are desperate - which is where this issue intersects with prostitution. How can human rights be ensured in these situations? #WhatsWrongWithSurrogacy
She is now talking about the impact of language and how it is used in the Law Commission’s report. (This is also an issue within the prostitution debate.) Surrogacy clinic vs facilitation provider, birth mother vs intended parent, etc. #WhatsWrongWithSurrogacy
Heather is now describing the medical procedure leading to a woman gestating a pregnancy intended for sale to others. She explains that surrogacy commissioners (“intended parents”) are usually wealthy & surrogate (birth mother) women are not. #WhatsWrongWithSurrogacy
Heather is now explaining how women are vulnerable to this exploitation due to being disproportionately affected by poverty, and how the sex industry similarly preys upon these women by presenting practices as being for the “open-minded”. #WhatsWrongWithSurrogacy
Heather stresses she is not suggesting women aren’t capable of making informed choices - but that many women will not be informed by much other than financial desperation, and arguments of choice ignore this. #WhatsWrongWithSurrogacy
The surrogate industry is just that: a capitalist corporate industry full of companies and individuals with a vested interest in women not (or not fully) considering the risks or understanding intimately the process, both legal and physical. #WhatsWrongWithSurrogacy
She explains the actual process can near-entirely remove the autonomy of the birth mother - forced into “live-in clinics” where diet, exercise and environment is highly controlled; disabled babies refused as “imperfect products”, abortion banned, etc. #WhatsWrongWithSurrogacy
The emotional and mental well-being of the birth mother is not considered, as she is merely the producer - in fact, she can be held liable in court if there is some perceived failure to fulfil contract on her part. #WhatsWrongWithSurrogacy
Society and the law is not on the side of surrogate mothers. They may be perceived negatively as women willing to sell their bodies/babies, which could go against them if commissioning couple decide to sue. #WhatsWrongWithSurrogacy
As with in prostitution, financial desperation and other circumstances can override fanciful ideas of free and informed consent to surrogacy. It is an exploitation of women and their bodies to serve the wants and needs of others. #WhatsWrongWithSurrogacy
Heather has now finished speaking. Elizabeth Purslow is now being introduced by Charlie. She was a midwife for 20 years & now works for the NHS. She is against surrogacy because she fully understands the deeply intimate reality of pregnancy & childbirth. #WhatsWrongWithSurrogacy
She explains there are 2 types of surrogacy: traditional, where birth mother provides egg and womb, and is impregnated with donor sperm - this usually occurs privately without any screening and is risky; or gestational, where both egg & sperm are donated. #WhatsWrongWithSurrogacy
In the U.K. women can only be offered maximum of £750 for egg donation - in USA it can be $10k. Fertility drugs can be given to stimulate egg production, which can cause Ovarian Hyperstimulation Syndrome. #WhatsWrongWithSurrogacy
This can cause some terrible side effects, ranging from mild discomfort to serious internal rupture and bleeding. Some women have claimed these drugs have caused cancers. #WhatsWrongWithSurrogacy
Pregnancy and childbirth are risky in normal circumstances. Current maternal mortality rate is 9.2 per 100k in the U.K. - women are taking this risk just to give baby away. Donor pregnancies come with their own risks however. #WhatsWrongWithSurrogacy
Donor pregnancies can cause pre-eclampsia, pre-term delivery, and low birth weight. Study in USA found that donor pregnancies, including IVF, came with higher risk than natural pregnancies and death rate with common multiple births is 2.5x higher. #WhatsWrongWithSurrogacy
Multiple births are treated like fashionable optional extra. Case example provided where birth mother and babies were lucky to survive - traumatic birth. #WhatsWrongWithSurrogacy
Increased incidence of high risk pregnancies impact on the NHS also, affecting maternity service provisions. Major pregnancy emergencies require more staff, more time in hospital, more resources. #WhatsWrongWithSurrogacy
Law Commission do not suggest limiting number of times women can be surrogates (minimum age is 18 but no maximum). Some women create career of surrogacy, and side effects of this are ignored. Case example of 47 year old woman provided. #WhatsWrongWithSurrogacy
This case has been used by other surrogacy clinics as example of bad practice and advertise their own “better” service. Elizabeth asks how much it should cost to recompense birth-incurred injury, or even death of birth mother & children they leave behind. #WhatsWrongWithSurrogacy
She demonstrates with examples that surrogate couples can be heterosexual & already have their own children - not just the arena of infertile and/or non-heterosexual couples. Birth mother death treated like failure to provide service & not paid for. #WhatsWrongWithSurrogacy
Elizabeth raises safeguarding and conflict of interest issues, which also puts other maternal patients at risk. Hospital policy is not consistent and Law Commission recommends minimal screening of commissioning parents. #WhatsWrongWithSurrogacy
NHS funding of surrogacy could create a “breeder class” of women. Elizabeth has now concluded speaking. #WhatsWrongWithSurrogacy
Charlie is now introducing Anna, the current chair of @nordicmodelnow. She will give a brief overview of the proposals the Law Commssion put forward in the consultation, and some of the concerns caused by them. #WhatsWrongWithSurrogacy
Under current law there is a total ban on advertising surrogacy services, so theoretically only “altruistic” surrogacy is allowed. Birthing mother is the legal mother, commissioning parents have to apply for parental order. #WhatsWrongWithSurrogacy
Social services then assess commissioning parents and judge decides in child’s best interests. Anna shares first-person experience from a woman who undertook altruistic surrogacy for family friends. She now has PTSD and no relationship with them. #WhatsWrongWithSurrogacy
Birth mother and commissioning parents have a conflict of interest over foetus as soon as process begins. “Reasonable expenses” are on average £12-20k. This is more than average salaries of TAs or cleaners in the U.K.; this puts poor women at risk. #WhatsWrongWithSurrogacy
Surrogacy consultation ran last year & ended in October 2019. It was complex and required technical understanding, summary paper was too brief, questions were often close-ended. #WhatsWrongWithSurrogacy
Key proposals are as follows.
New Pathway: separates into phases. 1. Pre-conception, where parties go through extensive checks, legal advice & counselling - that won’t explore woman’s reason for becoming surrogate - child welfare check, legal agreement. #WhatsWrongWithSurrogacy
New Pathway: separates into phases. 1. Pre-conception, where parties go through extensive checks, legal advice & counselling - that won’t explore woman’s reason for becoming surrogate - child welfare check, legal agreement. #WhatsWrongWithSurrogacy
2. Conception, pregnancy, birth: women can be catalogued by appearance and other qualities (akin to Nazi Germany etc), no recognition of health/ethical risk of egg harvest, no measures to reduce risks. Agreement awards commissioning parents rights. #WhatsWrongWithSurrogacy
The Law Commission recommendations likely to weaken birth mother’s rights over her own body and privacy - CP attend scans, have say over her choices, and become legal parents at moment of birth. #WhatsWrongWithSurrogacy
This means there would be more legal protection for birthing dogs in puppy farms than there would be for birthing mothers in surrogacy. #WhatsWrongWithSurrogacy
3. Post-birth: birthing mother has 5 weeks (or 3 in Scotland) window to object to CP becoming legal parents, huge pressure against CP and multiple surrogacy agencies/individuals through post-natal period. #WhatsWrongWithSurrogacy
Without objection, CP register the birth & entered into National Surrogacy Register. Law Commission acknowledge that stakeholders in potential surrogacy industry had differing view on payments from surrogates, & no measures to address risk of pimping. #WhatsWrongWithSurrogacy
Essentially the Law Commissioners would be strengthening the rights of commissioning parents and in turn the corporations profiting from surrogacy - and weakening the rights of surrogate mothers. #WhatsWrongWithSurrogacy
Anna is now showing examples of adverts for egg donation (U.K.) and surrogacy (USA) that already exist. It shows a rosy but false picture. Do we really want poor women to have to rent out their womb to survive? #WhatsWrongWithSurrogacy
“Not for profit” agencies sound good, but they will realistically want to cover costs - including huge salaries and nice offices. Anna demonstrates how hidden vested interests exist behind these nice-sounding agencies. #WhatsWrongWithSurrogacy
NMN recognises that children are born by surrogacy and as such tentatively supports a National Surrogacy Register to record birth mothers, babies, and other non-identifying information to track outcomes and risks. #WhatsWrongWithSurrogacy
Anna has now concluded speaking. Charlie is now introducing Lexi - a mother who read about the Law Commissions’s proposed reforms on Mumsnet, and submitted a FOI (27/08/19). She will now talk through the process. #WhatsWrongWithSurrogacy
She found that there were 40 group stakeholders involved in preparing the Consultation Paper, including one woman from non-profit surrogacy agency, Barry Drewitt-Barlow (married to director of British Surrogacy Center) and Stonewall. #WhatsWrongWithSurrogacy
She recommends looking into Drewitt-Barlows as there is a current court case from a surrogate mother. She also mentions Natalie Gamble (fertility law firm) and Cindy Wasser-Canada. #WhatsWrongWithSurrogacy
There were meetings on this proposal with Foreign & Commonwealth Office, Department of Education, Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority, and Surrogacy UK. Law Commission team was 11 men and 7 women. #WhatsWrongWithSurrogacy
Stonewall is an interesting stakeholder - the “Law Commission actively sought to appeal to gay men” by trying to engage famous gay men as influencers and readers of publications aimed at gay men. #WhatsWrongWithSurrogacy
Lexi is showing a list of charities and networks/foundations focused on pregnancy, and mentions a handful of women’s advocacy organisations that were contacted, but not consulted as stakeholders as far as is obvious. #WhatsWrongWithSurrogacy
She is now explaining that she will be raising awareness of the surrogacy debate and highlight the issues that are sidelined in MSM. She says lawmakers must take an unbiased approach & include all as stakeholders. #WhatsWrongWithSurrogacy
Lexi has now finished speaking. Charlie is now thanking all of our excellent speakers for their informative presentations. There is now a slide of “next steps” onscreen. Please visit nordicmodelnow.org for more. #WhatsWrongWithSurrogacy
Charlie is now opening the mic up for questions. The full recording of this webinar should be posted online within the next day or so, if you are interested in hearing these. Thank you for following along with us, and we hope you found it impactful. #WhatsWrongWithSurrogacy
