Why One Woman Wants You to Say No to Surrogacy

Popsugar.com 30 June 2014
Family First Comment: “Lahl emphasizes that the point of Breeders is not to tell families who can’t conceive that they need to “suck it up.” Rather, it’s to steer them toward other options for creating a family.” Well said.

When we think of surrogacy, we often think of a woman and a couple coming together to create a new life. We see happy faces and beautiful babies like the twins Sarah Jessica Parker welcomed via surrogate, but Jennifer Lahl says there’s definitely a darker side to the process. In her new film, Breeders, the former pediatric nurse and president of The Center for Bioethics and Culture Network explores a side to surrogacy that we don’t see on TV or read about in the papers. The film features several surrogates speaking about the physical, emotional, and psychological toll that their “good deed” took on them and the child they carried. Their stories, which include abortion, legal battles, and near-death experiences, open viewers’ eyes to the flaws that exist in, what appears to be, a perfect solution to a heartbreaking problem.
“I think I was really trying to point out that [surrogacy] is fraught with problems,” Lahl tells us about the film. “All of the marketing is geared towards happy, smiling couples holding cute, healthy babies, but it’s more than that.” After viewing Breeders, we can certainly see Lahl’s side of things. Here, five main messages Lahl wants viewers to take away from the film.
1 The Health Risks Are High
2 Low-Income Women Lose
3 It Affects the Mother-Child Connection
4 Contracts Don’t Solve Everything
5 There Are Other Options
READ MORE: http://www.popsugar.com/moms/Pros-Cons-Surrogacy-35096129?stream_view=1#photo-35096131