Gestational Surrogacy פונדקאיות

This article is by far the most thoughtful discussion I’ve read on surrogacy*. I too can’t avoid the associations with Handmaid’s Tale. The part of surrogacy that sticks in my craw is that, to put it bluntly, it seems it’s always rich white couples paying for the services of poor young women, i.e., exploiting someone else’s economic desperation -- a little too close to trafficking in women for my comfort.

I’m also uncomfortable with the role that race seems to play. I understand that if one is willing to adopt a child of color, plenty of infants are available. So surrogacy seems to perpetuate colluding in the commodification of white children. For the record, I’m not an interested party. I have three biological children and advocate reproductive freedom.

*The term "surrogacy" also seems inaccurate to me. Before gestational surrogacy came along, when someone referred to a surrogate mother, s/he meant someone who raised hizzer instead of a biological mother. I much prefer the Hebrew pundakayut פונדקאיות or "hosting" in the innkeeping sense.