Meghan Trainor recently shared the arrival of her third child via surrogacy. After dropping the news, social media was in a frenzy over the ethics of surrogacy. Trainor has experienced difficulties with her previous pregnancies, which prompted her family to pursue surrogacy. Some of the public is sympathetic and supportive of her decision to expand her family without jeopardizing her health. However, some of the public is adamant about the exploitative implications of surrogacy on women. Here are some ethical considerations to keep in mind when exploring surrogacy as an option.
Reasons for Surrogacy
Difficulties Birthing a Child
Individuals and couples may opt for surrogacy for various reasons. In Trainor’s case, she expressed to People Magazine that “…this was the safest way for us to be able to continue growing our family.” She further expressed that every family’s journey looks different, and surrogacy should not be judged.
Like Trainor, some individuals may have complications or difficulties with maintaining a healthy pregnancy to full term. For example, people with reproductive conditions such as PCOS or endometriosis may have infertility issues. If they end up getting pregnant, they are likely to have a high-risk pregnancy or experience ectopic pregnancies that result in miscarriage. As a result, IVF may not be a viable option for people struggling to carry a pregnancy to term.
Gay couples are another demographic that may want to start a family and desire surrogacy as an option. In this case, adoption can be a viable option for people struggling with birthing a child. However, some may prefer to have a biological child for personal reasons. Since children are human beings and not extensions of ourselves, the desire to have one should be intentional. Therefore, it is important to interrogate why you want to have a child.
If the intention is to have a “mini version” of yourself or continue your bloodline, your motives should be re-evaluated. However, if you desire to love, nurture, and help guide a child, then adoption or fostering is a viable option. While both systems are flawed, and adoption can be a costly and tedious process, surrogacy tends to be more expensive. Choosing to parent children who need families still fulfills your parental desire while benefiting society.
My Body My Choice
Another reason some people support surrogacy is that they view it as a consensual decision between two parties. The client is paying for the surrogacy services, while the surrogate is receiving compensation for their labor. It is essentially a job. Some people online argue that if sex work can be viewed as labor, why is surrogacy so different?
We live in a capitalistic world where work is a necessity to earn money for survival. As a result, people can easily opt into exploitative work to feed themselves and pay their bills. This needs to be considered because most surrogates do it for monetary as opposed to altruistic reasons. It is also why commercial surrogacy is banned in numerous countries. This includes but is not limited to: Canada, Australia, England, Italy, Japan, China, India, Saudi Arabia, and Brazil.
Additionally, some argue that if we support women’s bodily autonomy, then we should respect consensual surrogacy. They claim that a woman should choose to do whatever she desires with her body without pushback. While women deserve bodily autonomy, it is important to question whether they would choose surrogacy without the monetary incentive.
We must also consider what constitutes surrogate bodily autonomy. While a surrogate has final say on bodily decisions, are there financial consequences if the contract is not upheld? For example, if a health risk arises and the surrogate must terminate the pregnancy to save their life, do they still get paid for their attempt? What if the clients want to terminate the pregnancy due to genetic factors, but the surrogate doesn’t want to?
Reasons Against Surrogacy
Consequences of Contracting Wombs
Some people are strongly opposed to surrogacy due to the exploitative nature it imposes on women, especially those who are low-income. It is a practice that can target financially vulnerable women who are desperate to earn a living. To contract surrogates for a lower price and fewer regulations, some clients rent wombs overseas. This has led to horror cases such as the “Baby Gammy” case. In this scenario, an Australian couple contracted a Thai surrogate who gave birth to twins. As a result of one of the babies having Down Syndrome, the couple abandoned that child but took the non-disabled one. The Thai surrogate was left to raise the baby with Down syndrome and never received full compensation for her labor.
Every time ya’ll talk about surrogacy I think of that lady who is raising twins somewhere in America that she birthed for a foreign family and they just never came to pick up their kids.
— girly&wordly (@Brieyonce) January 21, 2026
Beyond the financial implications of raising an abandoned child, surrogacy also comes with potential health risks. Even though society romanticizes motherhood, pregnancy carries a lot of potential risks that the surrogate might be forced to bear. In the case of the Thai surrogate, when it was discovered early during the pregnancy that one of the children had Down Syndrome, she was requested to have an abortion while four months pregnant. There have also been cases where implanted embryos cause health risks such as miscarriage, premature birth, preeclampsia, ectopic pregnancies, placental abruption, etc.
If the surrogate doesn’t experience any physical health risks, it is still important to consider the mental, psychological, and emotional implications, such as postpartum depression. In addition, the baby can experience maternal separation due to being disconnected from the person who birthed them.
No One Is Entitled to a Child
When considering surrogacy, it is important to remember that nobody is entitled to a child. Having a child is a privilege, not a rite of passage. Unfortunately, children are the most oppressed population in our society. This is because they are viewed as property instead of human beings. They are viewed as an extension of their parents, which takes away their agency. Children are meant to be seen but not heard. They are meant to obey blindly without questioning the authority of their guardians.
In the conversation of surrogacy, the prospective parents’ feelings are centered before the exploitative implications of women’s bodies. Similarly, a person’s inability to have children is prioritized over the best interest of the child. If a surrogate doesn’t produce the desired child the parents want, their preference takes precedence over responsibility to the child.
Unfortunately, surrogacy, like adoption, operates as a capitalistic business. In this case, children are property that is sold for a monetary value, and that itself is the problem. While it is sad that some people have reproductive complications or an inability to conceive, does the end justify the means? We should be working towards a world where children cannot be bought, and wombs cannot be rented.
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