Reflection (2)

        After a semester's writing, I feel like that there are a lot of things in my issue paper that I need to revise.

        The first one is my position toward the surrogate mother. At first, I was at the position that against its legalization, but now I think I will change it to support for it. The reason why I change my mind is that according to the response that other classmates told me, if we see it is too complex and difficult to do and thus we give up, it is not a solution. It is going bad if we don't face, solve, and legalize it. Therefore, we should be positive and eager to improve this situation. As a result, I change my mind, my position will change to support it.

        The second, I will rearrange my all annotation, since my position is change, the original order is not proper anymore. Also, some of the words and sentences in my annotations will be revised, and thus be more suitable for my title, position, and then be more sensible and reasonable.

        The third one is that the meaning of surrogate mother should also be redefined. After the whole semester's research, I find that the "surrogate mother" may be not proper for us to call those mothers, or we should create a more suitable meaning for "surrogate mother". Therefore, I will write it into my article and give a detailed explanation in my revision paper.

        I think I know much better about surrogate mother after the whole semester and also learn more. I will do my best to write a more reasonable and better research paper in the end. Through these days, I think I have a progress in my writings and also learn to have an ability to write expository paper, I really glad about it. In the end, I hope my research paper will be as perfect as possible to make all you enjoy it!

(revised) Annotation 4: Surrogacy: Complicated and Unsolved Problems in Law and Morality, should we legalize it in Taiwan?

        As I mentioned in my Annotation 1, I think the method of surrogate mother may be a morally wrong practice. It relates to too many problems concerning to our lives: the surrogate mothers' health, moral problems, the definition of the mother, the position of the surrogate mother, the law, etc. Also in Taiwan, this has become a bid issue for us to discuss about: should we legalize it? This time, I may put the emphasis on the aspect of moral and law.

        First, I want to talk about the motivation of why people want to use the surrogacy. The first reason, undoubtedly, is those people who lack the ability of giving birth to their children want to have their genetic children. This may be an agreeable reason for people to use surrogacy. However, if the parents just don't want to experience the suffering process of breeding, can surrogacy be a real beneficial way to us? According to the article, if they are in the case of the latter, the parents may lack "symbiotic intimacy" with the children.

                The "symbiotic intimacy" is like the father kisses the belly of the

                mother while she is having a baby. This is an important process to

                erect the intimate relationship between the parents and the children.

                Otherwise, if parents are unwilling to devote to their children for other

                reasons, it is worth skeptical about if they are qualified and ready to

                be a father and a mother. (孫效智, 1997)

        Second, how do we defined the surrogate mother? If we defined surrogacy as a mean, just paying the money to use surrogacy, it just like we treat surrogate mother as a "thing", we can easily dispose of it whenever we finish utilizing it, we deprive their human right. We materialize the women who are surrogate mothers. However, if we treat them as a "person", if we take away the children and pay money, we deprive their intimacy to the children. Also, both of the children and surrogate mother may be commercialized. On the other hand, are they really willing to be surrogate mothers? What is their purpose to be surrogate mothers? We have known before that those who are the surrogate mothers usually have poor economical situation, thus we can conjecture that "the popular commercialism of surrogacy may lead to a phenomenon that rich women exploit the poor women". (孫效智, 1997) Otherwise, if they don't be in this poor status, they just want to earn money through this way, "they may block the children's self-identification and materialize the interpersonal relationship." (孫效智, 1997)

        Third, it seems that we are hard to chose the best way to legislate the surrogacy, it contains too many complex problems, for now, it is difficult for us to execute, and it also contains the problem of definition of mother and other aspects in our life. It looks like that even though we legalize the surrogacy in Taiwan, we still cannot make sure there is no problem anymore, but should we just abandon it? I think if we see it is too complex and difficult to do and we give up, it is not a solution. It is going bad if we don't legalize it. Even though there is still a long way for us to prepare all things orderly and completely to make it legalize, we should all face this difficult situation bravely and solve it.

Reference

-孫效智，〈代理孕母的倫理與法律問題〉，《應用倫理學研究通訊》，中壢：中央大學哲學研究所應用倫理研究中心，期4，1997.10  Retrieved from http://www.ncu.edu.tw/~phi/NRAE/newsletter/no4/01.html

Peer response (4)

(1) April

[Comment 1] Evelyn, I think the second part is not real problem, the other two is ok. And, The second part you did mention in the previous annotations, why did you give the space for the other thing?

[My response 1] Yes, I mentioned it in my former annotation, but I get more space in this to find more data to support it. It's related to law part

[Comment 2] What is wrong if poor Indian women want to be that kind of mother to get money?

[My response 2] But, this is some kind of that people force them to do that because their poor situation, they are not willing to do that. And, if they do want to be a surrogate mother, they may make the process of breeding commercialize and make the children be something like materialize, that is why I against it.

[Comment 3] Children is materialize or not, is just the way we think about it. If we love the children, even if he/she was born by the service, it is still ok.

[My response 3] But, if the original parents have ability to breed their own children, they still use surrogacy, the children means that they buy for it just like we buy commerdises.

[Comment 4] The other thing, you said you do not support it to be legalized because it’s too complex and unpredictable to be regulated, but, the more the situation is complex, the more we need to legalize it. If we see it is difficult because it is too complex and difficult to do and we give up, it is not a solution. It is going bad if you don't legalize it.

[My response 4] I see and you're right. I will think more of my position and make a revision.

(2) Jessica Iveth Villasenor

[Comment 1] Its hink is ok, but I see in the second paragraph you say "according to the article...." but you haven't mentioned in the article, there must be an citation there.

[My response 1] OK, I will make a revision. Thank you

[Comment 2]  The title is not concrete, because your conclusion is that it shouldn't be legalized, you can make a stronger title.

[My response 2] OK, I will think more about it, thanks.

[Comment 3] In the last part you mentioned Taiwan but you hadn't mentioned in the beginning , I'm not sure whether you should write it. Maybe you can write a sentence in the beginning, you can put it in this sentence "...it relates to many problems in nowadays Taiwanese life ..." just to remind us that your annotation is specifically about Taiwan, otherwise when may forgot it

[My response 3]  Because my issue paper is should surrogacy be legalize in Taiwan? so....OK, I will make a revision for it, thanks.

(3) Ariel

[Comment 1] This seems to be an ending of the issue?

[My response 1] Not really. In the conclusion, I will connect four of my annotation together and make a real conclusion. I will also mention other parts and situations in another annotations, so this is not conclusion, the real one is that I will put things in order and write reasonable.

 (4) Sharon Tsai

[Comment 1] I think that what you mentioned about the laws and the complicated problems, you can write it into the paragraph too, which would be more clear.

[My response 1] OK, I will. Thank you.

Annotation 4: Surrogacy: Complicated and Unsolved Problems in Law and Morality

        As I mentioned in my Annotation 1, I think the method of surrogate mother may be a morally wrong practice. It relates to too many problems concerning to our lives: the surrogate mothers' health, moral problems, the definition of the mother, the position of the surrogate mother, the law, etc. This time, I may put the emphasis on the aspect of moral and law.

        First, I want to talk about the motivation of why people want to use the surrogacy. The first reason, undoubtedly, is those people who lack the ability of giving birth to their children want to have their genetic children. This may be an agreeable reason for people to use surrogacy. However, if the parents just don't want to experience the suffering process of breeding, can surrogacy be a real beneficial way to us? According to the article, if they are in the case of the latter, the parents may lack "symbiotic intimacy" with the children. The "symbiotic intimacy" is like the father kisses the belly of the mother while she is having a baby. " This is an important process to erect the intimate relationship between the parents and the children. Otherwise, if parents are unwilling to devote to their children for other reasons, it is worth skeptical about if they are qualified and ready to be a father and a mother." (孫效智, 1997) Thus, this may arouse the other problem of the surrogacy.

        Second, how do we defined the surrogate mother? What is their purpose of being surrogate mothers? If we defined surrogacy as a mean, just paying the money to use surrogacy, it just like we treat surrogate mother as a "thing", we can easily dispose of it whenever we finish utilizing it, we deprive their human right. We materialize the women who are surrogate mothers. However, if we treat them as a "person", if we take away the children and pay money, we deprive their intimacy to the children. Also, both of the children and surrogate mother may be commercialized. On the other hand, are they really willing to be surrogate mothers? We have known before that those who are the surrogate mothers usually have poor economical situation, thus we can conjecture that "the popular commercialism of surrogacy may lead to a phenomenon that rich women exploit the poor women". (孫效智, 1997) If they don't be in this poor status, they just want to earn money through this way, " they may block the children's self-identification and materialize the interpersonal relationship." (孫效智, 1997)

       Third, since we are hard to chose the best way to legislate the surrogacy, it contains too many complex problems, for now, it seems difficult for us to execute, and it also contains the problem of definition of mother and other aspects in our life. It looks like that even though we legalize the surrogacy in Taiwan, we still can not make sure there is no problem anymore because it is too complicated than we can image, thus I think we should not make the surrogacy legalize.

Reference

-孫效智，〈代理孕母的倫理與法律問題〉，《應用倫理學研究通訊》，中壢：中央大學哲學研究所應用倫理研究中心，期4，1997.10  Retrieved from http://www.ncu.edu.tw/~phi/NRAE/newsletter/no4/01.html

(revised) Annotation 3: Surrogacy: A New Hope for Gay Couples

As I mentioned in the beginning of my paper, surrogacy can also give a resolution to gay couples who want to have their own children. We can see from the video that the gay couple was happy for having their genetic child through surrogacy, they showed their delight to have the child. It seemed that the surrogacy give them a new hope to their life. They are full of joy, and the child is their happiness.

Besides, according to the article, we can know that there are many people that object to make gay couples adopt children because of their sexuality reasons in many nations. "Since it becomes very difficult for gay couples to adopt children, Surrogacy is the only option left for them to have a child." (Edwards, 2012) Otherwise, having their own genetic children through this way also has many advantages:

They can as a result get pleasure from the security of having a child which

　　　　is naturally theirs. They can also aid the surrogate mother at some stage in
　　　　the tenure of her pregnancy and make certain of her good health and that of
　　　　their unborn child thereof. Knowing the surrogate mother's past history will
　　　　guarantee you of the health of your unborn child. (Edwards, 2012)
Thus, we can realize that the surrogacy not only help the couples who are unable to have their own children through fertility problems but also assist gay couple to fulfill their dream of having genetic children. Surrogacy gives many people hopes and happiness, so why prohibit it?

Although some of the people still oppose to it because of the problems below: they may be treated as an object which is their only function is to give birth to other people’s children, and they are forced to be as a surrogate mother by their families because of the financial problems. Truly, these kind of problems exit, but if we change our mind to think this event with opposite way, we may have different outcomes. The surrogate mother although may truly be treated unfairly, if they can change their mind to think that being a surrogate mother not only help their own family (solve the financial difficulties) but also help others’ families (give them new hope to have their own genetic children), the problems are not anymore problems, we all beneficial from this technology.

However, I have to admit that this technology for the gay couples really have defects. That is, when the children grow up, they may ask where their real mothers are and they may also be discriminated by other people. Thus, how can we use this technology right and how can we provide safeguard to avoid the following problems, it’s really a big and worth-thinking issue to us.

Reference

-Edwards, Christopher. (March, 2012). For Gay Couples, Surrogacy Is Like a Light of Hope Retrieved from http://goarticles.com/article/For-gay-couples-surrogacy-is-like-a-light-of-hope/6199140/

-NewsX Online. (February, 2012). Commercial Surrogacy: A New Hope for Gay Couples Retrieved http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CLkUCfywazQ&feature=related

Peer Response (3)

(1)Ken

 

 [Comment 1]

Recently, the Taiwanese official asked problems about surrogacy. He said that those women are just 哺育箱, they treat them as only object, what do you think about this?

 [My response 1]

Yeah, some part of people may think of this, but do you think that why those women want to be surrogate mothers? If they seem themselves as 哺育箱, they will not do this kind of things to give birth to other children, so I think it might be some disadvantages for being surrogate mothers, but if they choose it, they might accept this kind of job, so I think it might not be a problem to themselves.

(2)Tim

[Comment]

How about the children? Do you think they are victims to it? Because if I were a child born from the surrogacy, I want to find out my real mother.

[My response]

 Maybe for gay couples who use surrogacy has the problem of who is the child’s mother, but if the normal couple to use this, the genes, the sperms and ova are the original couples’, so they don’t have this kind of problem. But for gay couple I think…… hmm…… I will think more about it, thank you.

(3)曾品綺

[Comment 1]

I think that this issue is quite complicated and also it related to gay couples, they maybe bring more argument and maybe when their child grows up, they will suffer from discrimination or some other things, so I think you may talk about more this part.

[My response 1] OK, thanks.

[Comment 2] I think maybe you can think some more about laws about this issue, and let us know not only the personal examples, but also how the government treat this issue.

 

[My response 2]

OK, thank you. Maybe next annotation, I will take more parts on talking more about this.

(4)Vivian

 [Comment]

Also, the women who take surrogacy as a job, maybe they are forced sometimes. They are forced by their family because their financial problems.

 [My response]

OK, yeah, thank you.

Annotation 3: Surrogacy: A New Hope for Gay Couples

        As I mentioned in the beginning of my paper, surrogacy can also give a resolution to gay couples who want to have their own children. We can see from the video that the gay couple was happy for having their genetic child through surrogacy, they showed their delight to have the child. It seemed that the surrogacy give them a new hope to their life, and having the child of their own are realizable. They are full of joy, and the child is their happiness.

        Besides, according to the article, we can know that there are many people that object to make gay couples adopt children because of their sexuality reasons in many nations. "Since it becomes very difficult for gay couples to adopt children, Surrogacy is the only option left for them to have a child." (Edwards, 2012) Otherwise, having their own genetic children through this way also has many advantages:

                They can as a result get pleasure from the security of having a child which

                is naturally theirs. They can also aid the surrogate mother at some stage in

                the tenure of her pregnancy and make certain of her good health and that of

                their unborn child thereof. Knowing the surrogate mother's past history will

                guarantee you of the health of your unborn child. (Edwards, 2012)

Thus, we can realize that the surrogacy not only help the couples who are unable to have their own children through fertility problems but also assist gay couple to fulfill their dream of having genetic children. Surrogacy gives many people hopes and happiness, so why prohibit it?

 

Reference

-Edwards, Christopher. (March, 2012). For Gay Couples, Surrogacy Is Like a Light of Hope Retrieved from http://goarticles.com/article/For-gay-couples-surrogacy-is-like-a-light-of-hope/6199140/

-NewsX Online. (February, 2012). Commercial Surrogacy: A New Hope for Gay Couples Retrieved http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CLkUCfywazQ&feature=related

Reflection (1)

       I have discovered my defects including incorrect uses of grammar, redundant words and sentences, imprecise narrations, etc. Moreover, I cannot choose a strongly persuasive annotation for my issue, thus I always write weakly for my position. Otherwise, I may write the redundant explanations to sentences, thus I repetitiously mention the same points twice, making my paper look more tedious and seem to have less important and repetitious ideas. Moreover, I don't find the annotations toward a specific direction, I always find them randomly. Therefore, I cannot make my annotations be more connected and continuous. My whole article is read scrappier in the end.

        In order to improve these drawbacks, first, I will think twice before using the words. I will use more resources to make my word choices more precise, or ask for others' help. Second, check the sentences and words again and again to avoid writing them supernumerarily and making mistakes in grammar. I should make these seemingly subtle problems occur less, and write it as perfectly as possible.

        The matters that I mention above are relative slight and unimportant problems for writing an expository paper. The most critical matter in the paper is annotation. All the annotations are supporters. We should choose it wisely, thus our article can be persuasive. My annotations are not perfect. The first annotation didn't have certain resource on it, I don’t know surely where it came from, and thus I couldn't cite it rightly. Also, it's not a strongly persuasive annotation because it also mentioned the opposite position of its view point. It stands both positive and negative position. Thus, next time when I choose annotation, I will take a more resourceful one, then I can easily find the source of it. Next, I will find clear annotations that support a specific concept, thus I will not find it not persuasive enough in the article.

        As for the second annotation, I found it later that it talked about several things that some of them are not convincing enough for people, even for me. Otherwise, the second annotation was posted in 1998, it's far from now, thus it might not have some updating information, concepts, and values, therefore I might not be able to use it as an explanation to the phenomenon nowadays. Therefore, how I can improve these flaws is to read it again and again, realizing what it really wants to infer us, persuading myself first, and then using it. Besides, I will also find a more recent article as annotation lest it has problems I mentioned.

                In the end, the most crucial mistake that I made in choosing annotations is that I cannot make the annotations connective. They seem separated to each other. Hence, next time when I am looking for the next annotations, I will think of the former annotations first, and make the following annotations connect to the previous annotations.

        I hope I can improve these faults in the following steps of writings, thus make my final research paper as perfect as possible!

(revised) Annotation 2: Surrogacy is totally morally wrong

　　We can inferred from this article that surrogacy is seen as a morally wrong way to use. One of the reason is that surrogacy will be destructive of intimate relationships by giving birth to the couple's child. That is, the surrogate mother will be seen as a third person through a marriage that was originally formed by a husband and a wife. "The involvement of a third person from whose flesh this child is produced means that the child is linked with another whose presence in the intimate conjugal relationship compromises that relationship."(Ozolins, 1998) The surrogate mothers also have the intimate link with the children, we cannot deny their position and importance to the children. And, this may cause the problem of self-identity to the kids. The children may be confused that who is their real mother. "Clarity about origins is crucial for self-identity, itself important for self-respect." (Ozolins, 1998) Therefore, we cannot neglect its influences to the children. These results are resulted from that we see the surrogate mother as a person not as a mean. We treat the surrogate mother as a person, then if we take the children away, it may be some kind of exploitation to her because we take away what she originally has the right to own. Also, except it's immoral to bring the kids away, it might cause the psychological problems to the surrogate mothers. How do they feel when the kids that they give birth to being taken away and how do they overcome the mood?

      Otherwise, I think the payment to the surrogate mothers is also a kind of exploitation to them. Nothing can pay for the psychological and biological hurt of surrogate mothers. Although some people may think they are willing to do that, they are struggling for life, especially for those uneducated women, they have no other choices but to take this as a career to afford the enormous fee for their life and their families. However, it's still not a good option for them to choose because it really has some biological harm to them. Moreover, the cheaper the payment is, the more exploitation they will suffer. Besides, for those parents who do not have the ability to bear their own kids can choose for adoption. Although the children are not genetic, they can be the same if both of you are growing intimate relationship, moreover, you can bring a originally unhappiness orphan to a new and happy life. Thus, why we must have surrogacy?

　　Contradict to treating the surrogate mother as a person, if we regard the surrogate mothers as "hired artificial womb" or "artificial baby carrier"(Ozolins, 1998) , then we treated her as a thing, we failed to treated her as a person. From this point of view, "she is no longer a third party intruding on the unity of the spouses."(Ozolins, 1998) However, there is claim that surrogacy is  morally illicit because it's the failure to treat the surrogate as a person. Everyone has the right to be treated as a person, if seeing these surrogate mothers as a mean is agreed by people, then the law cannot protect them from risks according to the law for human rights, therefore, they may be easily indulged in dangers and be exploited. They do not have methods to protect themselves. Accordingly, this side of thinking is also not a good way as an explanation for the solution to the moral problem that the surrogate mothers bring us. It seems that there is no balanced way to solve the difficulty. Thus, " the surrogacy is in all of the usual cases morally wrong"(Ozolins, 1998) and cannot be put into practices.

Reference

-Olizons, John. (August, 1998). Surrogacy: Exploitation or Violation of Intamacy? Retrieved from http://www.bu.edu/wcp/Papers/OApp/OAppOzol.htm

Peer Response (2)

(1) April

[Comment 1] My first impression is, I understand your writing, and I agree with you. But I am more concern with this sentence "The involvement of a third person from whose flesh this child is produced means that the child is linked with another", it is a real problem because the baby will receive blood and nutrition from third party.

[My response 1] Thank you and yes, this is the main argument in this annotation and we can't find a balanced way to deal with it.

[Comment 2] If it is the main, why don't you give more space on it?

[My response 2] Yes, I will think more and give more space on it.

[Comment 3] In your writing, I understand that: the physical problem may cause psychological problem later on, is that your argument?

[My response 3] Yes, in this annotation, the main argument is that, and many problems resulted from it: children's identity, moral questions, and there seems no proper way to deal with it, the solution to both sides can also intrigue problems. Thus, in my point of view, I'm agree with this article, and the surrogacy should be prohibited.

[Comment 4] You should mention about in which cases it will be immoral, because not every cases are immoral, for example: the women cannot give birth.

[My response 4] One of the immoral is the origin parents treat the surrogate as a means to give birth to their children, and the other is if we treat the surrogate as a person, she also have intimate connection to the child, how can we take the child away, they're all immoral to the surrogate.

[Comment 5] I think the word must be "psychological".

[My response 5] I think the moral problems have something connections to the psychological.

[Comment 6] No, it's dependence. It depends in which case.

[My response 6] Depend, but also exploit, they depend on it because they don't have other choices, so they exploit them by paying low to use surrogacy.

[Comment 7] I don't think that it is exploitation, that payment is even higher than they got from their turmoil work with hands.

[My response 7] Yes, but the fee is different between India and America.

[Comment 8] CPI of each country is different, 10 US$ in US you cannot buy much, but in India, people could buy more think with the same amount.

[My response 8] Yes, but in my point of view, surrogate mother should be treated all the same in the world.

[Comment 9] Evelyn, do you need to determine your view, do you take a view from a baby's benefit, or from the third party's benefit or from the real parent?

[My response 9] Yes, I think in this annotation, I stand in the side of third party.

(2) Jessica Iveth Villasenor

[Comment 1] So you thing is morally wrong? May cause too much troubles after?

[My response 1] Yes, I think so. It will cause a lot of problems later.

[Comment 2] Maybe Evelyn you can explain about this two differentiations, and give more space for your own point of view.

[My response 2] OK, thanks. I will.

[Comment 3] I think the annotation is pretty good, just more explanation for the moral and immoral types of surrogacy.

[My response 3] Thanks.

[Comment 4] I think everybody has different point of view, add actually that is the purpose of the research, Evelyn has to convince others trough proves and articles that what she argues for is right.

[My response 4] Yes, thanks. That's what I will do in my revision.

[Comment 5] Maybe a clearer explanation of your point of view is ok.

[My response 5] Hum.....ok. I should think more about it, sorry.

[Comment 6] Maybe you can talk about each party, but always being clear about the one you argue for.

[My response 6] OK, thank you for you guys advices, sorry for that I'm not thinking so much, I will try my best to make it more clear.

(3) Ariel

[Comment 1] But why should that kind of things called immoral?

[My response 1] I think it's because we treated not properly, and hurt their personal rights, thus called "immoral".

[Comment 2] Even if they're lazy to born a child themselves, it's not a crime then.

[My response 2] OK, but the crime I think is to exploit the surrogate mothers.

[Comment 3] But what about the economical benefit they got? They're voluntarily to do that.

[My response 3] Yes, although they are willing to do it, but it's also somehow an exploit to it because as the video in annotation 1 mentioned, people go to India for surrogate mother is because it's cheaper there, so it's some kind of exploitation I think.

(4) Sharon Tsai

[Comment 1] I think this issue is somehow alike to Test Tube Baby.

[My response 1] Yes, it's similar, but it also a little different. Because the Test Tube Baby doesn't have strong relationship to a third party.

Annotation 2: Surrogacy is totally morally wrong

　　We can inferred from this article that surrogacy is seen as a morally wrong way to use. One of the reason is that surrogacy will be destructive of intimate relationships by giving birth to the couple's child. That is, the surrogate mother will be seen as a third person through a marriage that was originally formed by a husband and a wife. "The involvement of a third person from whose flesh this child is produced means that the child is linked with another whose presence in the intimate conjugal relationship compromises that relationship."(Ozolins, 1998) And, this may cause the problem of self-identity. The children may be confused that who is their real mother. "Clarity about origins is crucial for self-identity, itself important for self-respect." (Ozolins, 1998) These results from that are we see the surrogate mother as a person not as a mean.

　　However, if we regard the surrogate mothers as "hired artificial womb" or "artificial baby carrier"(Ozolins, 1998) , then we treated her as a thing, we failed to treated her as a person. From this point of view, "she is no longer a third party intruding on the unity of the spouses."(Ozolins, 1998) However, there is claim that surrogacy is  morally illicit because it's the failure to treat the surrogate as a person. Thus, " the surrogacy is in all of the usual cases morally wrong."(Ozolins, 1998)


Reference

-Olizons, John. (August, 1998). Surrogacy: Exploitation or Violation of Intamacy? Retrieved from http://www.bu.edu/wcp/Papers/OApp/OAppOzol.htm

(revised) Annotation 1: Surrogacy is helpful for survival and gives hope to people (both surrogate mother and the clients)

      As the film reveals, some women earn money as surrogate mothers, especially in India and for those who are poor and uneducated women. This new kind of career gives them hopes and encouragements for living, and they can even earn more money than the normal women earn.

      As the situation said by Dr. Ranjana Kumari, a women's right activist in India, in the film, it seems there is no other proper way for them to survive, but we can learn that many women also find a new career as surrogate mothers to brighten their way to the future. They can afford their own children's education, the cost of taking care of their parents, and of course the life themselves.

      However, some people are worried about the surrogate mothers somehow have intimate connections to the children, how do they feel if they send the children back to their parents? I think those women who take the surrogate mothers as career are something like we work for our normal jobs, we don't have strong emotional or intimate connections or feelings to the results we work out, we just take the jobs in order to afford ourselves. Moreover, the children even do not have strong biological connections to the surrogate mothers besides the children are growing up in their wombs. On the other hand, I think to be a "mother" is different. The children's genes are ourselves, that is the children have intimate connections to us. We always treasure those who have strong feelings or intimate connections to us, thus I think this kind of relationship between mothers and children is more inseparable.

      Otherwise, taking the surrogate mothers as career is more vivid in India because it's legal to have surrogate mothers and it's more cheaper there for people to have surrogate mothers to give birth to their children.

      On the other hand, not only the surrogate mothers gain hope in their life, the original parents also receive happiness. They will have little adorable gifts that they may not have before. This is wonderful for those who want to have their genetic children but they can't to fulfill their dream. We can see the delighted smiles on the parents' faces who use surrogate mother in the film, they solved the problems of vibriosis and had a happy life, so why don't we use surrogate mothers and make it legalized in Taiwan? Although some people may think we can adopt a child to solve the problem, I think the adopted children and the genetic children are totally different because the adopted children do not have biological connection to the parents. For some people's concerned, this is an important point to them. However, there are also some people do not care about it, so it's decided individually. Thus, why don't we use surrogacy to provide more various methods to solve the problems of vibriosis?

Peer Response (1)

(1)Ken

 [Comment 1]

It might have some problems to use surrogate mothers. In my point of view, because it is the surrogate mother who gives birth to the child, just weird.

 [My response 1] 

Although it's the surrogate mothers who give birth to the child, the genes are still yours and your wife's, so I think it's not strange to have a child through this way.

 [Comment 2] 

What about the surrogate mothers? Because maybe she may has some emotional connections to the baby, even when she is pregnant.

 [My response 2] 

Yes, this is the negative views, and I will talk about it next. But I think although it is really a problem, those women who will take the surrogate mothers as their career, they may have the minds or preparations to overcome it. If they don't, they may not choose to be the surrogate mothers.

(2)Dr. Mei-Ya Liang

 [Comment 1] 

Mothers can be defined by birth and also can be defined by career, so can you talk a little bit about the different definitions about motherhood?

 [My response 1]

I think those women who take the surrogate mothers as career are something like we work for our normal jobs, we don't have

strong emotional or intimate connections or feelings to the results we work out, we just take the jobs in order to afford ourselves. Moreover, the children even do not have strong biological connections to the surrogate mothers besides the children are growing up in their wombs. On the other hand, I think to be a "mother" is different. The children's genes are ourselves, that is the children have intimate connections to us. We always treasure those who have strong feelings or intimate connections to us, thus I think this kind of relationship between mothers and children is more inseparable.

 [Comment 2] 

And, also about the adoption, because the related phenomenon is adoption.

 [My response 2]

But I think the adopted children and the genetic children are totally different. Because I think the adopted children do not have biological connection to the parents. For some people's concerned, this is an important point to them. However, there are some people do not care about it, thus it's decided individually.

 [Comment 3]

We have some debates between relative importance between nature and culture. So, you are who you are because of what? What make you a good person or what make you a educated person?

 [My response 3]

I think our personalities are defined by ourselves and influenced by many environmental and cultural reasons. Thus, we are ourselves because we want to be like that, it has little connection

to nature. The nature just defined our gender, not our personalities and values.

(3)Tim

[Comment]

So, what's wrong with surrogacy? And, who is against them?

[My response]

 Because being a surrogate mother may do harm to their health. It's dangerous to be a surrogate mother. I will find more reliable resources to explain about it.

(4)Vivian

 [Comment]

I'm just wondering if mothers who do not give birth to their own children, do they have strong relationship to their own children?

 [My response]

It's a thoughtful point to me, I haven't thought about it before. You give me a good idea to extent to the context of my paper, thank you. I think, you're right, mothers may not have strong connection to the children because they don't experience the process of bearing the children, including the pain and the morning sickness, and they even don't know the feeling of the quickening of the womb, thus as you mentioned, they may have no strong relationship to their own children. And, that's the disadvantage of using the surrogate mothers.