As surrogacy has continued to grow in popularity, many are speaking out against it, noting that it leads to commodification — both of women and of the children to whom they give birth. An example of this can be found in the trend of babies born to surrogates abandoned by their would-be parents, as detailed in the Daily Mail.
The outlet delved into the issue after backlash resulted from the news that actress Lily Collins’ newborn baby had been born via surrogate. Many responded by saying surrogacy is a Handmaid’s Tale-esque form of human trafficking at worst, and out of touch with the struggles of the average family at best.
Though Collins is one of many celebrities using surrogates to have children, problems surrounding surrogacy exist regardless of who the would-be parents are — and one of those problems is the abandonment of babies.
Keeping one twin and abandoning the one with a disability
Some parents have abandoned a child because they deem that child “defective” due to a disability — most notably seen in the “Baby Gammy” case. As Live Action News previously reported:
Baby Gammy and his twin sister, Pipah, were born to Pattaramon Chanbua, a Thai surrogate hired by an Australian couple, David John Farnell and Wenyu Wendy Li. At seven months, the couple found out she was carrying twins, and that one of the twins — Gammy — had Down syndrome. The couple told the surrogate to have an abortion, but she refused, so after the children were born, they left Thailand with Pipah, but abandoned Gammy.
Worse, Farnell was discovered to be a registered sex offender, raising concerns over Pipah’s safety.
The Australian government elected to keep Pipah in the home with him, calling it the “least unsatisfactory” option, though the child was given a book explaining Farnell’s offenses and was never permitted to be alone with him.
“In essence, the document records, in terms a young child will learn to understand, the history and method of Mr Farnell’s offending,” Justice Thackray said in his judgment. “It is designed to help Pipah understand why she is not permitted to spend time alone with her father, and serves as a reminder to the safety network of the need for vigilance.”
Farnell died in 2020, and Chanbua, the surrogate, received hundreds of thousands of dollars to help her care for Gammy, which she has continued to do.
They wanted to remove her from life support
Bridget’s story didn’t receive as much attention as Gammy’s, but it’s just as heartbreaking. Bridget Irmgard Pagan-Etnyre was born prematurely at 25 weeks to a Ukrainian surrogate, whose “services” were purchased by Americans Matthew Scott Etnyre and Irmgard Pagan. The surrogate was initially carrying twins, but Bridget’s sibling died at birth.
Bridget clung to life, but her would-be parents abandoned her — and at five months, tried to have her removed from life support. According to Der Spiegel, the news that Bridget would have lifelong disabilities is what led Etnyre and Pagan to abandon her.
They later gave permission for Bridget to be released for adoption, but never filed paperwork making her an American citizen; as she was born to a surrogate, this left her effectively stateless.
Etnyre and Pagan soon entered into a different surrogacy agreement, and had twins — this time, they kept the babies.
Maria Telyupa, Bridget’s surrogate mother, worked hard to care for Bridget for the first months of her life. Then, when she attempted to obtain guardianship of Bridget, her husband refused, and she and Bridget were separated permanently. Under Ukrainian law, Bridget would remain eligible for adoption until age seven; after that, she would be removed from the care home where she spent her entire life, and be placed into a permanent institution.
Thankfully, another American couple came forward to adopt Bridget, bringing her to a safe home out of war-torn Ukraine. But Bridget had already experienced immense trauma.
“You can’t judge a child as soon as it’s born — ‘We don’t like this child, we wanted you to have a Hollywood smile upon birth,’” Marina Boyko, the nurse who cared for Bridget, previously said. “I would say to them that they have an amazing daughter.”
All they wanted was a death certificate
Brittney Pearson had agreed to be a surrogate for a gay couple, but got earth-shattering news when she learned she had aggressive metastatic breast cancer in her second trimester. Pearson was originally told by doctors that she needed to have an abortion in order to receive treatment for the cancer; she refused, and tried instead to find a hospital where she could deliver the baby early, saving the baby’s life and her own at the same time.
As Live Action News previously reported:
Pearson explained that doctors initially wanted her to take a form of chemotherapy that was safe during pregnancy until she hit 34 weeks. Then they would give her body time to heal and induce labor at about 36 weeks.
The would-be parents, who had said they didn’t want a baby who was born prior to 39 weeks because he might have health problems, were convinced to accept that; however, when the cancer was found to be much more widespread, with a more aggressive chemotherapy treatment plan needed, doctors wanted to pursue induction earlier.
Pearson said the couple wanted the baby “immediately terminated” and “erased” as they believed the little boy had no chance of survival.
“It was frustrating because I wanted to give them a family,” she said. “[T]hey said they cared but they didn’t. I felt betrayed and heartbroken.”
Pearson maintained her decision not to abort the baby, and the couple quickly retaliated, threatening to not only abandon her and the baby, but to sue Pearson and the hospital — which made her oncology team afraid to treat her without consulting lawyers first.
The couple also refused the option of allowing Pearson or another person to raise the baby, saying they didn’t want their DNA “out there” being raised by someone else. Even when an adoptive couple was found, they refused, and said all they wanted was a death certificate.
At 25 weeks, Pearson was ultimately induced, but the baby boy died not long afterwards in her arms, as the couple refused to give permission for any life-saving treatments. It was a heartbreaking, traumatic experience for Pearson, who said she would have fought for this baby’s life had she been able to.
“The first thing I thought after I was diagnosed was, ‘I want to keep this baby safe and bring it earthside,’” she said. “I would have been there, I would have given him every chance of survival.”
Donors and a divorce
Sherri Shepherd, a celebrity talk show host who previously appeared on “The View,” caused nationwide outrage after abandoning her child.
At the time of the surrogacy arrangement, Shepherd was married to Lamar Sally, and the couple wanted to have a baby but were struggling with infertility. Using a donor egg and a surrogate mother, they moved forward with the surrogacy arrangement. But halfway through the pregnancy, Sally and Shepherd decided to divorce, and Shepherd changed her mind about having a baby altogether — and abandoned the surrogate.
Sally still wanted the little boy, named L.J., but Shepherd did everything she could to avoid taking any responsibility for the baby — to whom she was not biologically related, due to the use of the donor egg. After L.J. was born, she removed him from her health insurance, refused to be listed as the parent on the birth certificate, refused to pay child support to Sally, and was not present for the delivery. A judge ruled against her, however, forcing her to be named on the birth certificate, and to pay both alimony and child support to Sally.
There are countless more stories like these, with surrogate mothers and their children treated not as human beings, but as commodities who can bought and sold on demand.
