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Human rights and bioethics updates

A blog dedicated to updating you upon legislation and ethical debates around human rights (principally under the angle of law-enforcement forces) and bioethics (under the angle of the protection of vulnerable persons). You are welcome to leave your comments on any of the posts!

Wednesday, May 25, 2005

CHILDREN SOLD TO HOMOSEXUALS BY SURROGATE MOTHERS: THE NEW SLAVE MARKET OF BELGIUM ON THE VERGE OF OPENING

A recent event has marked spirits in Belgium recently. The media made recently known that a Belgian surrogate mother had « auctioned » her child on the internet to a Dutch heterosexual couple against 15.000 EUR.

In the origins, the Flemish mother of three had concluded a contract with a married couple who wished to have a baby. She first asked 10.000 EUR, but the parties then settled for a lesser sum and she had her medical expenses reimbursed by the couple. She was then inseminated with the sperm of the husband. Then, towards the later part of the pregnancy, she told the heterosexual couple that the child was « lost ». According to accounts, she then proposed to a « couple » of Dutch homosexuals to « sell » them the child - the homosexuals apparently also only reimbursed her medical costs.

She then changed her mind on put her child « on auction » to the most offering, though it does not appear that the child was put on sale on a web site as early reports have infered. Though the transaction is illegal in civil law and would be deemed contrary to public order according to the current case law in Belgium, the State authorities have little power to act, since the act is not punished under the Belgian criminal law. At the latest news, the Prosecutor of Oudenarde (in Flanders) were looking for the possibility of prosecuting the parents under the incrimination of art. 417 quinquies of the Belgian penal code, which punishes "any treatment causing (...) in the eyes of another or {in the eyes of the person itself} a serious humiliation".

However, the surrogate mother would have no possibility of enforcing her contract if the adoptive parents would refuse to pay.

The news created a certain turmoil in the Belgian society. A number of Belgian Members of Parliament announced plans to develop a legislation around the phenomenon. The most astounding around this event was the direction in which the Belgian parties were directing themselves...

A Senator of the VLD (Flemish liberal party) announced that... it wished to authorize the practice. The French-speaking equivalent, the MR announced that it was opposed to the carrying mothers but wished to foresee exceptions for sterile couples.

The Sp.a party (Flemish Socialists) came out with an idea even more absurd: they wished to authorize the practice of surrogate mothers, and to extend the authorization to homosexual couples who desire to adopt children. That is the birth of a new slave market in Belgium: a market where unborn children are to be sold to the most offering. Since the greatest part of the demand on the « market » comes from homosexuals, one can see where this leads society. Again, as for cloning and euthanasia, Belgium is a legal « no man’s land » where the lack of rules leads to absurdities arising.

It seems that the situation is even worse in the US, since about 23.000 babies are already born from surrogate mothers in the States. The cost is also higher: about 100.000 $ per child. On these 23.000 births only 60 cases came before courts, with only a few states forbidding the practice. Speaking of a "legal no man's land"...