In recent days, various "big melons" have exploded in the media, and the term "surrogacy" has been frequently mentioned.
On one side, the female star of the "Little Fairy" person said in the recording, "Our children can still have it, some of our fertilized eggs have not been used up, and these things have been preserved."
On the other hand, a few years ago, a "senior talented woman" said lightly on a talk show: "I may have to prepare for surrogacy, which is normal", and also mentioned that many people around me do this, "find a belly" to give birth to twins and triplets.
At the same time, a news report of "Hubei Surrogacy Village" also attracted the attention of many people. One interviewee said that there are women in the village who are nearly fifty years old to go to surrogacy, and some mothers, daughters, and daughters-in-law have joined in, forming a small industry, which is shocking to watch.
In the current legal environment of our country, surrogacy is an explicitly prohibited act, which means that the woman's uterus is treated as a "commodity", which is the objectification of women, and it is also a disregard for life itself.
A living person, treated as a "walking womb", becomes a so-called "belly", which is chilling.
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In her novel The Handmaiden's Tale, Canadian writer Margaret Atwood describes a scenario in which fertile young women (i.e., "handmaidens") are "assigned" to the families of commanders without descendants, their freedom of movement, property rights, etc. are completely deprived, their diet and living are strictly monitored, and their only duty is to give birth to heirs.
The tragic encounters of the handmaidens take place in the author's fictional absurd world, but, as many critics have pointed out, Margaret Atwood's story, although full of bizarre overtones, is not untraceable in real life, and she has only taken the real problems in society to the extreme.
The controversial BBC documentary "The Surrogate" shows a "surrogacy factory" in India. Hundreds of poor Indian women crammed into "surrogacy houses" to "rent" their wombs to couples who could not have children for various reasons in exchange for about $8,000 in labor to improve the situation of poor families.
On the surface, the financially strapped surrogate mothers have worked hard to conceive in October, received a lot of money (about the same as the income of ordinary manual workers for several years), and the couples on the other end have ushered in a long-awaited new life, which seems to be a fair and fair deal.
But is this really the case?
Considering the survival dilemma of surrogate mothers, the real reasons why they embarked on this path, and the reality of the differentiation of rights between people with different social classes and wealth status, it is not difficult to find that when women are reduced to "reproductive machines", it is not only a tragedy of individual fate, but also a reflection of the dark side of society and human nature.
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"Surrogacy" is by no means a new thing, it has appeared in different forms and faces in various historical periods and different countries.
In ancient China, poisoned by feudal ideas such as "three principles and five constants", "no filial piety and three, no queen is great", in order to continue the incense and pass on the generations, there were once bad habits such as "pawn wives", that is, to "pawn wives" like commodities, to make temporary concubines for rich families for several years (usually with maternity clauses attached), and then repatriated to the husband's family.
According to historical records, the behavior of "torturing and selling wives and children" has appeared in the war-torn Southern and Northern Dynasties, and the Song, Yuan, Ming, and Qing dynasties are also quite common, even in the Republic of China period, the phenomenon of "pawn wives" is still very active, forming a great exploitation of poor women at the bottom.
In the 1930s, the young writer Roushi, in his masterpiece "Mother Who Became a Slave", took the "wife" Chunbao's mother as the protagonist, vividly showing readers the tragic experience of a "surrogate mother" in the old era.
Chunbao's mother married a leather dealer as a wife when she was young, and at first her husband worked diligently, but his situation was not good, and he was contaminated with vices such as alcoholism, smoking, gambling, etc., and his temper became more and more irritable, and his family's situation deteriorated day by day.
The husband cannot afford the life of his wife and children internally, and he is collected from debt every day outside, and the family is in a cloud of sorrow and misery. At this time, shen media in the village pointed out to him: "Although the wife is hairy, poor, and has no way, what is she still doing at home?" ”
She introduced a "good business" in the trend: the 50-year-old old Xiu in the neighboring village had nothing to do, and the mother did not let him marry the concubine room, and recently promised to "pawn" a woman, to do things and have children, and his wife, Who is still breastfeeding, Chunbao's mother is very qualified. The two hit it off, did not say hello to their wives, and signed a contract for 100 yuan.
After learning the news, the wife had no other way but to lament "bad luck" and "bitter fate", and on the agreed day, she had to say goodbye to her young son Chunbao with tears and came to Xiucai's house in a palanquin.
Xiucai was not bad for her materially, but Xiucai often mocked and suppressed her openly and covertly, mocking her like a on the street and instructing her to do heavy housework. After giving birth to her son Qiu Bao, the title of "mother" naturally belongs to Xiucai Niangzi, and her name can only be "aunt".
At Qiu Bao's first birthday party, the husband actually appeared, nominally to celebrate the child, but in fact to borrow money from his wife, who quietly gave him a green jade ring sent by Xiucai. Xiu was furious after learning about it: This ring will be given to my son Qiu Bao in the future, what qualifications do you have to give it to someone?
Soon, the wife was driven back to her original home, just a few days ago, Xiucai also asked Shen Matchmaker, who would spend tens of yuan to "continue the classic" for a few years, or simply "buy" it as a concubine.
What about the reunion days with her husband and son Chunbao's family? The husband lazily twisted on the kang, called her to cook in a rough voice, and did not forget to say sarcastically: "You are really a big family living!" Chun Bao was also reprimanded for "looking for your mother to sleep."
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The humiliating three-year life of a wife once temporarily alleviated the dilemma of a small family, but the husband not only turned a blind eye to his wife's efforts, but also had a more contemptuous attitude towards her.
We can't help but wonder: if we encounter problems again, will the wife be pushed into the fire pit again and become a fertility machine for large families? If a baby girl who was drowned by her husband's own hands before survives, will she face a similar fate to her mother when she reaches adulthood?
In the documentary "The Surrogate", a surrogate mother said: "I don't want my daughter to do surrogacy in my life." However, if the deep-seated social and legal problems behind the "wife" and "surrogacy" are not solved, whether such a simple wish can be truly realized will have to be a big question mark.
In numerous analyses of surrogacy issues, several words are mentioned many times: poverty, class, law, ethics, women, instrumentalization.
Whether it is The Mother of Chunbao written by Roushi 90 years ago, or the low-level women living in the "surrogacy house", they are all struggling in the quagmire of poverty, and sometimes they have to face their idle and even domestically abusive husbands, and the social atmosphere is not friendly to women.
Therefore, when someone "bids" to rent their womb, they are forced to refuse the power and space to refuse due to the pressure of livelihood, and can only go down this dark road. From this point of view, those seemingly fair surrogacy contracts, which are essentially the use of inequality in wealth and status, constitute the fact of exploiting and oppressing others.
The Indian female doctor and head of the surrogacy organization in the documentary said: "A very special woman can become a surrogate. She believes that the choices of these women have greatly improved the situation of family life and deserve encouragement and praise.
In fact, the surrogate mother can get $8,000 (if there is a miscarriage, etc., it may only be a few hundred dollars), but less than one-third of the fees charged by the agency, which is ostensibly a "win-win" and a "business" behind it.
Luo Xiang, a professor of criminal law, said:
If important personal interests can be given up, then freedom must lead to the exploitation of the strong against the weak. ...... If you can discipline your body, you end up not being free. For it will inevitably lead to the exploitation of the strong against the weak. This is why our ethics hold that one cannot discipline one's most important interests, because freedom cannot come at the cost of renouncing it. ”
At the legal level, organ donation is allowed, but organ trading is absolutely prohibited. The same is true of the womb as a body organ, and the act of "surrogacy" can lead to the emergence of three or four parents in the same child, which in itself has a certain conflict with social ethics. For women, this so-called "rent-a-lease" behavior also constitutes a violation of their right to freedom.
While the "surrogacy industry" that wanders in the gray area provides convenience for a small number of people and becomes a tool for seizing wealth, the negative impact on more people and social atmosphere is more far-reaching. In particular, the consequent abandonment of infants and irreversible bodily harm caused by illegal egg retrieval constitute disregard for the right to life and health.
What is even more terrifying is that when it becomes a grand "business", people will become "tools", and the possible end that may eventually be to stage a real version of the "handmaiden's story": people lose their names, have no personality, let alone dignity and rights, and what remains is only indiscriminate birth symbols.
At that point, what is the difference between man and machine, and slaves?
Note: The pictures in this article are from the network.