Welcome to Breakpoint, a daily look at an ever-changing culture through the lens of unchanging truth. For the Colson Center, I'm John Stonestreet. Back in 2011, authorities uncovered a series of crimes committed by Philadelphia abortionist Kermit Gosnell. They described his clinic, which targeted poor and vulnerable women, as a house of horrors. Gosnell was allowed to harm so many people because abortion clinics were allowed to operate under-regulated and without any serious oversight whatsoever.
Earlier this month, investigators used that same phrase, "House of Horrors," to describe what they discovered in the home of Los Angeles residents Gwajin Schwinn and Sylvia Zhang. The couple has been charged with child abuse after acquiring 21 children, all but two, through surrogacy and placing them under the care of nannies, according to a Washington Post article that described the story. And I quote. The children suffered daily beatings from cruel nannies as the couple watched over a network of surveillance cameras and laughed, according to prosecutors. The couple allegedly recruited women across the country to service surrogates, promising them that they were just looking for another child to grow their family.
End quote. Defenders of commercial surrogacy will often justify the practice with the pain of childlessness and the legitimate desire that people have to become parents. But never mentioned are the wild west realities of this largely unregulated market, including how vulnerable women are enticed and mistreated, and how children are treated as commodities of the wealthy. This couple, the Washington Post went on to report, is quite wealthy, with nearly 300 bank accounts, one that contained 70 million dollars, not to mention 10 million dollars of antique sculptures and especially alcohol. But the troubling part here is not their money; that the couple apparently considered the children among their vast collection of worldly possessions and were able to acquire them in such a highly unregulated market.
In fact, as conservative pundit Ali Bastucki noted, other than the abuse. No part of this story describes anything illegal, as she put it. "Quote: Children are treated as commodities, and it's completely legal. This couple just happened to get in trouble because they lied and abused the kids. Everything else they did—recruiting women, renting wombs, buying and selling children to random buyers without background checks—is legal." Commercial surrogacy is the legal loophole for child trafficking.
We must ban it. In other words, this kind of corruption is not a bug of commercial surrogacy; it's a feature. As Katie Fowles, founder of Children's Rights Group, then before us, told the Colson Center, this case is not surrogacy gone wrong, but and I quote, "This is surrogacy as planned. Everything that took place wasn't just legal; it happened in the most highly regulated state in the country, California." Why is the Golden State a hub for baby manufacturing? Because the contract reigns supreme over and above the objections of the surrogate, the well-being of the children, pesky ethical considerations such as mass-producing children or handing them over to the elderly or foreign nationals.
Look, stories like this can make us angry, and they should. But we should no longer be surprised by them. The famous definition of insanity, often credited to Albert Einstein, is doing the same thing over and over. Again and expecting a different result, the recurring assumption over and over again in our social debates about sexuality and reproductive ethics is that we can remove oversight and accountability all in the name of autonomy, and somehow our worst fears will not come true. For example, abortion advocates insist that any regulations or oversight on abortion providers were needlessly restrictive barriers to so-called reproductive rights, but were then surprised that an abortion doctor would cut.
Corners and endanger lives by operating an unsafe and illegal clinic. That'll never happen, we're told. Until, of course, it did. Like the abortion industry, the surrogacy industry is also unregulated and enables the abuse of children. In fact, in this industry, the loopholes are gaping.
Surrogates are scammed, forced into terms that impact their ability to make decisions in the best interests of the baby they carry. They lose rights sometimes to adults they've never met.
However, because regulating, much less ending, commercial surrogacy is nowhere near the top of the action item list of either political party these days. Christians have to become louder in opposing it. After all, if citizens and politicians refuse to say anything, what's supposed to never happen will just continue to happen. For the Coulson Center, I'm John Stone Street with Breakpoint. Before I go today, I want to say thanks to Mary Alice of Eagle River, Wisconsin.
Thanks for being a cornerstone monthly partner of the Coulson Center. You made this episode of Breakpoint possible. Today's episode was co-authored with Dr. Timothy Paget. If you're a fan of Breakpoint, leave us a review wherever you download your podcast.
And for more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, go to Breakpoint dot org. Christian educators, this is Billy Hutchinson with Colson Educators. As a former teacher myself, I know you're busy, and I know you want to teach like a Christian, not just be a Christian who teaches.
Well, that's why we created the Colson Educators app. You can get practical worldview training wherever you are. Complete courses on your schedule, earn CEUs, and connect with a community of like-minded educators. Download the Colson Educators app on the Apple App Store or Google Play.
