Surrogacy as Modern Slavery: A Moral Argument for Its Abolition
Source: https://www.facebook.com/americanspectator/. "Surrogacy Is the New Slavery | The American Spectator | USA News and Politics." September 6, 2026. spectator.org
The Gist
The author argues that surrogacy is essentially a new form of slavery because it involves treating children as products that can be bought, sold, or discarded if 'defective.' Using examples of intended parents demanding abortions of surrogate babies with health issues, plus a tangent about a mother who murdered her children, the author claims this proves society has been morally corrupted by abortion and will get even worse unless surrogacy is banned now.
Conclusion
Surrogacy is a modern form of slavery and must be forcefully confronted/banned before it evolves into a greater societal evil.
Premises
- Surrogacy involves the buying and selling of children, which is morally equivalent to the historical slave trade
- Religious authorities (Polish Catholic Bishops) have declared surrogacy inherently evil and incompatible with Christian morality, stating children are not property
- Documented cases show intended parents demanding abortion of surrogate-carried children diagnosed with health conditions (cleft lip in Canada; heart condition in Texas), demonstrating children are treated as disposable products
- This treatment is arguably worse than historical chattel slavery, since slave owners would not demand execution of an 'imperfect' slave, only refuse purchase
- Abortion culture has already normalized treating unborn children as objects to be discarded when inconvenient, paving the way for surrogacy's commodification of children
- Societal indifference to child life is evidenced by public sympathy for Lindsay Clancy, a mother who murdered her three children, with 11 of 12 jurors reportedly ready to acquit her
- Evil is inherently progressive and will escalate if unchecked—today's surrogacy will lead to tomorrow's buying, selling, or killing of toddlers and teenagers
Assumptions
- Children conceived via surrogacy are being 'purchased' in a morally equivalent sense to human slaves
- A comparison to slavery is apt despite surrogacy being a voluntary contractual arrangement rather than coercive bondage
- Isolated anecdotal cases of abuse represent the essential nature of surrogacy as a practice rather than aberrations
- Moral decline is a linear, inevitable progression once any 'evil' is tolerated
- The Lindsay Clancy case and jury sentiment are representative of broader societal attitudes toward child life rather than an isolated legal/psychological case
- Religious moral authority (Catholic bishops) constitutes sufficient grounds for a secular policy argument
- There is a causal or ideological lineage connecting abortion acceptance to surrogacy acceptance