Oprah's show today was about infertility and American women using surrogate mothers in India to have babies. First of all, I want Lisa Ling's job! She researches and talks about current topics in this country such as the FLDS communities that have been in the news recently, puppy mills (that hold a special place in my heart because of my little Shammu) and now "outsourcing" surrogacy to India. I always find it interesting to hear Americans' thoughts on India, especially those that have visited the country. I think the show did a good job of not being too ethnocentric or judgmental. When showing how the money the women receive is invested into building new homes for their families Ling tried to explain and show what is considered thriving in that community in India. There are so many stereotypes of that part of the world. I'm amazed still when non-Indians try to sum up India. It is a country of many contradictions, one that cannot be summed up in a single phrase.
As I am currently single and not trying to have a child, surrogacy and motherhood are not things I think much about. However, given my age group I know many people who are currently pregnant, trying to get pregnant or who have just had kids. There is an interestingly LARGE number of people that I know that are having or have had twins (some through in-vitro and others naturally). I know from personal stories of others about the struggles of getting pregnant in your mid-30s. And also one story of the length couples will go to just to have a baby with their genetic make-up, spending over $100,000 to try to accomplish this. If I was in their place maybe I would feel the same passion and dedication to this wish as they do. But sitting in the place I am right now I feel sad for the thousands of children without parents who are in orphanages, foster or group homes wishing for a family. I continue to be amazed at the stigma attached to adoption, as if it is somehow bad, that that child is second-rate, or that the chance of problems with that kid is higher. It seems in the society I grew up in no one considers this method of becoming parents until nothing else works. I missed the first five minutes of this show and maybe Oprah asked them this then, but why didn't the first couple consider adopting kids in America? Instead they chose to basically rent out the womb of a little woman (literally she is shorter than 5 feet I think they said) in India. This show did not question or fully address the health of these surrogate women. The New Yorker ran an article in the last year about studies being done linking a person's health in mid and later life (specifically the incidence of Coronary Artery Disease) to their mother's health 5 years prior to her delivering the child. The surrogate women are taken care of at the center during the pregnancy, but what was their health like prior to them becoming surrogates?
The second half of the show was taken up with Martha Stewart's daughter Alexis talking about her struggle to become pregnant and how she and her mother spend $28,000 a month on this goal. First of all, this woman is SO MONOTONE. I don't know if this is because as she explained she has to look at this as a job or she will get too emotional about the process, but she just seemed shut down. Oprah tried to set up a funny moment and Alexis just didn't take the bait. She spoke about how in Hollywood people don't discuss the difficulties of getting pregnant as you get older and that celebrity magazines don't talk about this problem. So are we to deduce that Alexis Stewart gets her news from celebrity magazines and believes what is written in US Weekly? I assume in today's world that if you're of a certain age you know at least one person/couple who is having a hard time have children, so that argument of hers didn't hold any weight for me. Apparently Alexis has her own radio show Whatever on Sirius. I have never heard it, but it sounds like it is all about her and her friend Jennifer. *Yawn*
What are your thoughts on this topic?
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