I first thought about surrogacy when a friend was having issues conceiving. It made me think about the hypothetical: if I could carry a baby for someone I loved dearly, would I do it? I didn’t need to think long; I knew I personally could never hand over a baby I had given birth to.
Surrogacy is fraught with moral complexity. On the one hand, there are joyous parents who never thought they’d be able to have their own biological children and women who say they find being a surrogate fulfilling. On the other, heartbreaking stories of what happens when it goes wrong, tales of terrible exploitation of women in poor countries, and – recently – babies left stranded with no parents in countries such as Russia and Ukraine during Covid, then war.
