Parents push surrogate to abort

[Temporary_User]

http://www.care2.com/causes/health-p...e-an-abortion/

a Canadian couple who discovered that their fetus was likely to have Down's Syndrome decided that they wanted to have an abortion. ... but to make matters even knottier, the fetus was being carried by a surrogate, who wanted to carry the pregnancy to term.

[Cecil Terwilliger]

This isn't a big deal to me, with one major caveat. That the parents and the surrogate had previously discussed what they would do if the child was going to be anything but healthy.

If the surrogate wants to keep the child then let her. As long as the couple had, as part of their arrangement, let the surrogate know that they wanted a healthy kid.

Article says the surrogate aborted the fetus anyways.

Let's assume the couple didn't have a healthy-child-only provision. Then they couldn't force the woman to have an abortion. As long as the couple didn't try and back out of payment or something I don't see what the issue is.

From the article:

But the fact that a case like this has surfaced reinforces the fact that in situations where pregnancy becomes a legal contract, parents and surrogates need to explore all possible outcomes before they begin. If the parents are pro-choice and the surrogate is not, that's something that they need to address before the surrogate becomes pregnant. This is, arguably, a reason for greater government oversight, simply because most parents and surrogates don't imagine that something like this could happen.

That all seems fair. I guess the issue is government intervention and contract law.

[Bob]

Your title is wrong.

[iggyntangs]

adopt=abort?

[Hack&Lube]

So they implanted the fertilized egg from the real parents in the surrogate? The real parents should have a right to decide what they want from their child. It is likely out of compassion that they want to save their child from a lifetime of hardship and undue suffering. I believe they should have the right to do this.

[getbak]

Originally Posted by iggyntangs

adopt=abort?

Ah, that makes more sense. I hadn't read the story and thought that the couple had said, "hey, if you want to keep carrying it, you can have it when it's born".

[Temporary_User]

Opps, well that was an obvious error that I missed.

[corporatejay]

Originally Posted by Hack&Lube

So they implanted the fertilized egg from the real parents in the surrogate? The real parents should have a right to decide what they want from their child. It is likely out of compassion that they want to save their child from a lifetime of hardship and undue suffering. I believe they should have the right to do this.

You need to clarify this position.

Are you suggesting that the parents should have the right to the tell the surrogate to get an abortion?

That will never, ever, ever happen, nor should it, that's horrible.


My position is this.

If they want to push for abortion because they don't want a child with down syndrome (and as an fyi, 90%+ of parents who find out their child will suffer from a mental disability to decide to abort), and the surrogate wants to keep the child. Then the surrogate can carry the child to term and keep the child for themselves and/or give it up for adoption.

You can't force the parents to take the child, and no one in their right mind would give a special needs child to parents who don't want them.