International Surrogacy-“Baby Farms” in UK

“Surrogacy arrangements can be ethical, especially when done altruistically. Too often, though, surrogacy is exploitative and brutalising for the women carrying the babies, who are usually poor. Of course, this doesn’t happen on British soil. Commercial surrogacy is an international trade: Nigeria, Cyprus and Georgia are all prime destinations for wombs for rent. More than 200 babies a year are born to overseas surrogates for British parents.

Some international surrogacy agencies force pregnant women to live in dismal communal homes, the better to monitor them. After the women give birth, they are not permitted contact with their babies — it would be unacceptable for them to become attached. The surrogate gives her full legal consent to this arrangement; but then, if she was in a position to refuse, she probably wouldn’t be in a surrogate house to begin with.

Stop me when this sounds familiar. The wrongs of the past haven’t been expunged: they’ve been exported. Instead of the church exploiting women’s fertility, it’s now done in the name of capitalism and kindness. But just as with the forced adoption scandal, the state is complicit. “Baby farms” in poor countries exist only because rich countries allow their citizens to use them.

In 50 years, it’s easy to imagine a future government saying sorry to another generation of mothers and babies who had their rightful relationships stolen from them. ”

Adoption horror goes on, we’ve just exported it
[The Times 7/3/26 by Sarah Ditum]

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