Julie Bindel Julie Bindel

Rebel Wilson and the problem with surrogacy

Australian actress Rebel Wilson (Getty Images)

When the Australian actor Rebel Wilson announced the birth of her daughter Royce Lillian, she added the small detail that she had been born by a ‘gorgeous’ surrogate. Wilson expressed her gratitude to the woman who had carried the child for nine months before giving birth to her:

‘Thank you for helping me start my own family, it’s an amazing gift. The BEST gift!!’

A child is a human being, and obviously not a ‘present’ – although Big Fertility would have us think differently. Wilson, who had tried IVF three times without success, said that her desire to have her own baby was ‘overwhelming‘.

So overwhelming that she thought borrowing another woman’s womb was perfectly acceptable.

How does a ‘commissioning parent’ think it feels for the birth mother to give up the baby they have gestated? The assumption is of course that the birth mother is completely detached from what is growing in her womb because she knows she’s going to have to give it away afterwards.

But that’s not how it works. I have interviewed women who entered into surrogacy arrangements only to be devastated and traumatised at having to give the baby up. When the embryo is the egg of another woman the birth mother has no genetic attachment to the baby. But the idea that she is not physically connected to the baby is ludicrous.

Rebel Wilson is rich enough to outsource her pregnancy, but actually, it is possible to exploit a woman in the global market, start to finish, for the price of a new car. These women are often desperate, pimped into surrogacy by abusive husbands.

Exploitation is not only evident in poorer nations, however. Some surrogates are struggling single mothers in the US, including those who have escaped domestic abuse and are living on trailer parks without any other income.

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