Right to Life of Michigan opposes surrogate parenting contracts because these contracts threaten the lives of innocent unborn humans, makes human life a marketable commodity, and reduces surrogate mothers to warehousing agents.

Right to Life of Michigan opposes surrogate parenting contracts due to the risk to an unborn child’s life. Surrogacy parenting contracts may include an abortion clause for sex selection, “health” standards, and number of babies. The unborn child with a disability, the wrong sex, or being one of multiple embryos may be killed via contractual agreement. Current Michigan law bans the practice of commercial surrogacy and prevents enforcement of surrogacy contracts. Due to this law, disabled baby Seraphina Harrell’s life was spared when in 2012 her surrogate mother moved to Michigan to avoid being pressured into abortion by the intended parents.

Right to Life of Michigan opposes surrogate parenting contracts due to risk to the unborn child from the practice of preimplantation genetic screening (PGS). With the rise in gestational surrogacy, in which the intended parents’ gametes or donor egg and sperm are used to create embryos, comes the additional risk to the unborn child(ren) due to discarding less desirable embryos prior to implantation. Babies are screened for the proper sex or for imperfections and then thrown away if they don’t meet the standard. This is nothing more than eugenics. If the unborn child escapes detection and upon birth does not meet “perfection” standards, there is a threat that even necessary medical treatment will be withheld from the innocent life.

Right to Life of Michigan opposes surrogate parenting contracts because surrogate arrangements treat human life as a marketable commodity. With surrogacy contracts, an individual or a couple rents the womb of a woman for predetermined fees and imposes legal requirements on the surrogate mother. The baby becomes a product which is carried for nine months by the surrogate and then released to the intended parent(s). Such contracts often provide for medical and other expenses related to the pregnancy as well as compensation for the services rendered, i.e., the production of a healthy, desirable child. Surrogate parenting contracts reduce surrogate women to commodities and surrogacy-conceived children into objects of a contract.

Right to Life of Michigan opposes surrogate parenting contracts because surrogate women may become victims. Often a woman’s decision to enter into a surrogate contract is monetary. While the surrogacy agreements may relieve temporary financial stress, breaches in contracts could result in devastating legal and financial consequences for the surrogate. In addition, the industrialization of reproduction seldom takes into consideration the short-term and long-term physical, emotional, and psychological impact on the surrogate mother.

The practice of surrogate parenting has made human life a marketable product and significantly devalues the protective obligation we have towards members of our human family. In the surrogate arrangement, there are no guarantees that the defenseless child or the surrogate mother will be protected. The potential for the destruction of children of surrogate parenting arrangements by abortion or preimplantation genetic screening impels Right to Life of Michigan to stand firm in opposition to surrogate parenting contracts.

(Board Approval 4-30-2021)