Wall Street Journal Examines Increased Media Coverage Of Surrogacy, Renewed 'Debate' Over Practice

Main Category: Women's Health / Gynecology
Also Included In: Pregnancy / Obstetrics
Article Date: 29 Apr 2008 - 8:00 PDT

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The Wall Street Journal on Friday examined how increased media coverage of surrogacy is "rekindl[ing] the debate over the morality" of the practice. According to the Journal, the Society for Assisted Reproductive Technology recently has reported a 30% increase in surrogacy during the past three years, and several newspapers and magazines recently have published articles about the practice. In addition, a movie about surrogacy, titled "Baby Mama," opened in theaters on Friday.

Surrogacy has not received so much media coverage since the 1980s, when a surrogate, Mary Beth Whitehead, sought custody of the infant and "transformed the way surrogacy is practiced," the Journal reports. Prior to the case, the surrogate usually conceived using her own egg. After the case, agencies began to implant another woman's egg in the surrogate's uterus to ensure the surrogate has "no genetic connection" to the infant, the Journal reports.

Although the "fastest-growing segment" of infertility cases occurs among women under age 25, the media often are interested in the "Mommy Wars" angle of a "careerist woman who waited too long" to have children, according to the Journal. Surrogacy also is a "plot made for Hollywood" because of an "uneasy balance of power" between intended parents and surrogates over issues such as payment, the Journal reports (Miller, Wall Street Journal, 4/25).

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