A woman hired to serve as a surrogate is speaking out, alleging the surrogacy agency never paid her. Darlene Arreola told KABC she successfully carried and gave birth to twins — even undergoing an emergency C-section. But afterward, she said the owner of the surrogacy agency disappeared.
“Because they have been trying for so many years, I knew that I was doing the right thing,” she said of the couple she contracted with. Arreola signed a surrogate contract with Elite Women Surrogacy (EWS), which is owned by Kenia German. The money she received for the use of her womb was supposed to be placed in a trust; instead, she said it was given to German, who disappeared.
“Apparently they gave her a check, or they gave her the money, and I didn’t even know that,” Arreola claims. “I wasn’t even aware that they had paid her directly until the last appointment that I had where I talked to them and I told them I haven’t been paid.”
READ: Hawaiian newborn saved by bystander after being thrown in a dumpster
When KABC went to the address for the EWS office, it had been vacated, with another business taking over the space. German, meanwhile, insisted the money had been given to Arreola. “She kept saying that the money was being withheld by the bank, that the bank wasn’t releasing the funds,” Arreola said, explaining that she was given screenshots of bank transfers but the accounts the money was transferred to were not hers.
The situation, Arreola said, has been traumatizing, and has left her struggling to provide for her children. “Never did I imagine that I would be going through all of this and putting my family now through it, and us struggling because of my choices, and I feel really guilty,” she said.
The American fertility industry is largely unregulated, and women hired to serve as surrogates are often exploited by wealthier couples looking to have children — both in the United States and abroad. As Jennifer Lahl, founder and president of The Center for Bioethics and Culture Network, recently explained in an interview with Live Action founder and president Lila Rose, being a surrogate carries more risks than natural pregnancies do. There is also a high risk for financial exploitation, which Lahl said destroys the concept of informed consent.
“We don’t have any business asking young women to put themselves in risky situations, especially when we’re paying them,” she said, adding, “Doctors are not in the business of telling us to do things that are harmful to us. And they are not in the business of offering money for us to do things that are harmful to us. That’s one of the main reasons why we do not allow organ donors to be paid. We don’t want money to be a coercive element in the whole area of informed consent.”
