Welcome to the Brave New World. Three British women – including a mother and her daughter – are carrying the surrogate children of two homosexual men.
The “surrogacy circle” is run by Karen Harris, also know as “mama stork”; her daughter, Bex, 32; her former daughter-in-law, Becky, 27; and neighbors Viktoria Ellis and Jemma King.
The two men, Daryl Lee, 41, and Luke Harris, 50, of Surrey, told the Daily Mail they always wanted to have children, because “our home felt empty without them.” They had considered adopting a child but decided to enlist surrogate mothers after reading about how singer Elton John became a parent through surrogacy.
As a result, Bex Harris and Becky Harris became pregnant using Lee's sperm, and Viktoria Ellis is pregnant using Luke Harris' sperm. All three women are the biological mothers of the children they are carrying, but said they have “no intention of doing any mothering at all.”
The “surrogacy circle,” which is located in Sudbury, has announced the three babies will be born between January and July of next year
Sarah Jones of Surrogacy UK observed that it was highly unusual for a couple to use more than one surrogate at the same time, telling the Daily Mail, “I think this is a really extreme case, and it's not something that would normally happen.” However, there are no regulations prohibiting such situations.
Although paying women for surrogacy is illegal, Surrogacy UK, a non-profit group that arranges introductions between surrogate mothers and intended parents, said “expense” payments of about £15,000 (more than $23,600 U.S.) are typical for each baby delivered.
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Surrogacy UK laments that, because so few British women are attracted to surrogacy that there is a long waiting list of prospective parents, with an ever-increasing number of homosexual couples signing on.
This has brought about a huge demand for surrogacy in developing countries, especially in India, where surrogate motherhood has become a $2.3 billion industry, with the enthusiastic encouragement of some state governments.
In Sweden, however, a feminist organization condemned surrogate motherhood in October as “a global trade with women’s and children’s bodies” and demanded the government ban the practice. The Swedish Women’s Lobby (Sveriges Kvinnolobby) argues that surrogacy exploits the woman’s body and her reproductive organs, and violates poor women’s human rights.
“Having a feminist approach to surrogacy means rejecting the idea that women can be used as containers and their reproductive capabilities can be bought,” the group said in a policy paper.
“The right to bodily integrity is a right which should not be able to be negotiated by any form of contract. No matter the regulation or the nature of the contract, it still remains a trade with women’s bodies and with children. The rights of women and children, not the interest of the buyer, must be the focus of the debate surrounding surrogacy,” the group stated.
