The practice by which a woman breeds another couple's baby receives the name of rent belly or surrogacy, a term that is better, softer, but is highly criticized by those responsible for a campaign that aims to prevent it from ever being implanted in our country and, in passing, sensitize the population around the world in against a practice that they consider abusive, humiliating and that introduces the woman's body and her uterus into an unjustifiable buying and selling business.
This campaign is called "We are not vessels", in reference to the fact that no woman should act as a recipient for another couple's baby in exchange for money, because this practice is being monetized, business is being done and in India, for example, they are being implemented women's farms They are dedicated to gestating, giving birth and taking care of babies that are not theirs until the owners arrive to take them away.
Women farms?
So is. Logical. Tell me something that generates money and I will tell you how to do to have workers in my charge that carry out this practice, in an organized way and generating wealth for me. If gestating a baby has many benefits, it seems quite lucrative to set up a farm, have a staff of several women and have babies born to other couples. They earn money and the person responsible for all this too.
Meanwhile, these women receive food, vitamins and are urged to rest so that the pregnancy ends well, sleeping in rooms where about 10 surrogate mothers gather. They will not be able to have sex, they should avoid risks and if something ends badly neither the doctor, nor the hospital nor the contracting parents are responsible for anything. That is to say, they are the only ones responsible if the baby is not born.
Why do they do it? Because they get paid for it. According to the data they give us on the same page of the campaign (of which I will tell you right now), a woman who is pregnant with twins charges $ 10,000, more than if she only gestates a baby. In case of abortion in the first three months, 600 dollars. That money is part of what the "boss" charges for all this, which he receives between $ 25,000 and $ 30,000, which will always be much less than the 75,000 to 100,000 that this practice costs in the US, another country Where is it allowed?
The campaign "We are not vessels"
With a web page that accompanies it, the campaign "We are not vessels" adheres to a much larger, worldwide, called "Stop Subrogacy Now". Both have the objective of highlighting what is happening, what we have commented, how the woman's body and her uterus are being used commercially.
How the need of women with low resources is exploited to exploit them economically. And all this through pregnancy, a situation that can generate emotions, feelings in women, in addition to all the associated symptoms that a woman must live until she gives birth, which are greater when a fertilized egg is developed that It is not proper.
An example of this that I say can be seen in the following video, which belongs to a trailer of a documentary that deals with the subject and in which a sample of said business appears, and even to a woman who takes care of "her" baby while He expects his parents to pick him up, not knowing very well when the delivery will happen, or if it will happen (extracted from the videos section of the campaign):
The campaign is labeled #nosomosvasijas and behind it we find philosophers, constitutionalists and women of the feminist movement who want avoid at all costs that surrogacy is even raised in Spain, where it is illegal for now.
For the campaign, all participants have signed a manifesto whose most important points are the following:
- Substitute maternity denies pregnant women the right to decide during the pregnancy process and in subsequent decisions regarding the upbringing, care and education of the minor or the minor.
- Surrogate motherhood not only prevents women from choosing, but also includes punitive measures if the conditions of the contract are altered.
- Women are not breeding machines that manufacture children in the interest of breeders. It is, on the contrary, an obvious example of extreme “obstetric violence”.
- The argumentative recurrence of the “altruism and generosity” of pregnant women, to validate the regularization of rent bellies, reinforces the entrenched definition of women, typical of religious beliefs, as “beings for others” whose vital horizon is the “ service ”, giving to others. The truth is that the supposed “generosity”, “altruism” and “consent” of a few only serves as an argumentative parapet to hide the traffic of wombs and the purchase of standardized babies according to price.
- No type of regulation can guarantee that there will be no money or bribes involved in the process. No legalization can control the pressure exerted on pregnant women and the different power relationship between buyers and rented women.
- The so-called "surrogacy" cannot be registered, as some claim, in the framework of a "collaborative economy and consumption": the so-called "collaborative relationship" only hides "patriarchal consumption" by which women can rent or buy from total or partial way.
- The Human Rights perspective implies rejecting the idea that women be used as containers and their reproductive abilities are bought. The right to integrity of the body cannot be subject to any type of contract.
Some of the organizations that have subscribed to the campaign are the Feminist Network of Constitutional Law, Escola D'Pensament Feminista 25 D'Abril, Women's Platform for the Abolition of Prostitution, Family Association Union, Women Legal Themis and the Forum State of Feminist Policy. In addition, there are the entities Assistance to Violated Women, Women Foundation, Gifts in Xarxa, Federacion de Mujeres Progresistas, Mujeres para la Salud, Asociación Malvaluna de Extremadura, etc.
