Abortion, Surrogacy, Designer Babies - The New Free Market Of Reproductive Choices

The American Supreme Court recently overturned Roe v Wade, the nation's abortion ruling decided over fifty years ago, returning abortion policy back to the states.  A conservative state like Texas or Oklahoma might choose to restrict or outlaw abortion, while others like California and New York might loosen any and all restrictions 

Many have long argued that Roe v Wade was wrongly decided, and that the liberal Warren court of the times was persuaded by the social movements of the times that there was a Constitutional justification for guaranteeing a woman's right to an abortion under any and all conditions.  The current Roberts court disagreed, could find no such right, and ruled accordingly. 

Now, the free market will be the adjudicator.  States like California and New York, taking quick advantage of the judicial windfall, have attracted women from all over the country for a quick, private, secure, and safe abortion. Having turned over marketing and communication to private advertising agencies, these states have mounted persuasive campaigns no different than those for the promotion of consumer products.  Images of New York City, the Bay Bridge, and Hollywood were the backdrop for the promotion of 'abortion packages', including free room stay, food, and tickets to shows and musical events. 

 

If women are coming to New York for an abortion, they might as well be treated as welcome tourists and encouraged to spend their money. While there was some grumbling - the Catholic Church roundly condemned the commercialization of murder - most conservative media were quiet.  The Court decided in their favor, respecting states rights, dismissing disingenuous claims to 'universal' rights, and opening the doors to a thriving private market, 

'What about the poor?' shouted liberals, recalling back alley and coat hanger abortions, and promoting their own crafted images of a poor black women bleeding to death behind a dumpster.  Yet the liberal voluntary agencies were also quick to cash in thanks to the open market.  Thousands of dollars poured in to enable them to pay for trips from Mississippi to New York.  'No Woman Left Behind', was their calling card, and a new Underground Railroad sprang up shuttling black women to and from the coasts. 

It was a Supreme Court decision long overdue, and everyone benefitted - voters in conservative states who abhorred the idea of infanticide; the abortion clinics of liberal states and the municipalities which benefitted from abortion tourism; and the private, voluntary agencies which saw an infusion of cash donations unlike any in the past.  

The private market has worked quite well regarding surrogacy.  Although there have never been any laws preventing a third party from carrying the fetus of two people unrelated to her, many conservative groups have voiced their opposition.  Reproductive surrogacy tantamount to a perversion of God's Creation, his divine plan, and the sanctity of natural fertility and must be outlawed. 

Of course the private market reacted differently, and as demographics changed. Women who delayed childbearing and for whom conception, pregnancy, and birth were risky affairs turned to technology and surrogacy for solutions.  Their babies were 'conceived' in a laboratory and the embryo planted in a surrogate mother.  A win-win solution all around.  

Women could have the babies they wanted and not have to be inconvenienced for nine months.  Laboratories geared up for the demographic shift charged well for their reproductive services, went public, and became wildly successful; and poor women for whom pregnancy was nothing compared to the miseries of life in the ghetto, were paid thousands, a cut of which of course went to sponsoring agencies. 

 

The market for designer babies has been active for some time as couples have purchased eggs of desirable women for use in their reproduction. The market for Harvard eggs is booming, and girls have lined up to provide this resource.  Not on a first come, first served basis, however; since prospective parents want brains and beauty, only the eggs of attractive, smart girls are in demand.  Marketers have tried the reverse - going to southern universities where the proportion of beautiful girls is high but IQs are low - but have been unsuccessful.  The chances of an attractive Harvard girl from an unattractive lot are still higher than the other way around. 

Another market, however, will soon overwhelm the eggs-for-sale one - recombinant DNA, gene-splicing, and genetic engineering.  Sooner rather than later, couples will be able to purchase the DNA of beautiful men and women, athletes, and geniuses dead or alive and use it, combined with their own, to create the baby of their choice and their dreams. 

A couple will be able to choose from an online catalogue and mix and match Taylor Swift with Michael Jordan and Robert Oppenheimer.  The estates of those deceased will be parsed in ways to enable non-invasive disinterment for gene harvesting and the living stand to make millions. Prices will vary.

The futures market is already active, and those attractive personalities who are still alive have already sold rights to their DNA; and the estates of those who have died have cleared legal hurdles for the rights to disinterment and gene harvesting. 

 

Who would turn down a designer baby?  A baby natural enough because it would come from a woman's own womb and would contain at least some if not most of her and her husband's genetic traces, but a more ideal, perfect one.

There has been surprising little outcry from the religious community about all this.  Their focus has been entirely on abortion and the removal of an unborn human life is murder; but the transformation of a natural, normal heterosexual reproduction into a test-tube, laboratory-based, surrogate, genetic cataloging affair should be even more concerning.  The whole Biblical applecart is being upset.  The very essence of the most intimate of human activities - reproduction - is being neutered and claimed by secular forces.

This brave, new world is not close enough yet for protest.  Once it becomes more common and more approaching the norm, the outcry from the pulpit will be loud, angry, and clear.

The genie is out of the bottle.  Just as AI is transforming human exchange, the nature of knowledge and information; and just as virtual reality is replacing 'the real thing' as the first choice of existence, artificially engineered human beings will replace random offspring. The future is here.