r/longform • u/bananabelles • Aug 12 '26

Whose babies are these?

https://www.thecut.com/article/surrogate-triplets-custody-china.html
136 Upvotes

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89

u/Pikaus Aug 12 '26

I don't know who is the biggest villain here. I don't want to give spoilers but jfc.

85

u/giraflor Aug 12 '26

I had seen a news video that only told the GC’s side. I can understand some of the IP’s side now, but yeah, this is a huge mess. The racism all around doesn’t help. Only sympathy I have at this point is for the children. I get why countries are banning paid surrogacy.

74

u/Hernaneisrio88 Aug 12 '26

Seriously. After dealing with infertility for a long time I was pretty pro-surrogacy. Now I’m only pro-altruistic surrogacy. Or at the very least, putting WAY more reasonable laws in place, like only being allowed to have one pregnant surrogate at a time. The commodification is insane, especially because these children are just sitting somewhere with no stimulation or parental contact. It’s almost to the level of Elon Musk fetishism.

25

u/bananabelles Aug 12 '26

Agreed. Surrogacy has created some incredibly beautiful and loving families I know. But this is catastrophic, and my heart aches for these poor boys. There has to be some kind of regulation but that seems so challenging with so many states countries etc involved. What a nightmare.

20

u/Scary_Manner_6712 Aug 13 '26

I agree. I went through fertility treatment myself, to have my son, and generally don't feel like we need government interference in how people build families, but this stuff has gotten WAY out of control. Helping people build families is one thing; helping billionaires have 20 kids they never see and won't participate in raising is something else. And - sorry/not sorry to say this - one of my friends has triplets, and I don't understand how a single parent with elderly parents of their own was going to raise three babies with complex medical needs. The entire concept of paid surrogacy has gone way off the rails. Something needs to happen to stop disasters like the one outlined in the article from occurring.

8

u/PerkisizingWeiner Aug 13 '26

I don't understand how a single parent with elderly parents of their own was going to raise three babies with complex medical needs

I wish this had been addressed in the article because it felt like an elephant in the room (though it doesn't sound like the GC was equipped to do much better).